Licensing in Texas: Its Role and Benefits

W. Kevin Coleman
Reed Engineering Group, Cedar Hill, TX

In April 2001, after approximately 10 years of hard work and lobbying efforts by the geologists of Texas, the Texas Geoscience Practice Act was passed. This achievement is both hailed as a landmark achievement and feared as an unnecessary intrusion of state government into private industry by geologists with opposing viewpoints. Because exploration and development of energy and mineral resources are exempted under the Act, little information was disseminated throughout the petroleum geology community. Misinformation and lack of information has resulted in frustration and mistrust by some.

Traditionally, the engineering community has had little regard for geologists, and has undermined the value of geological input wherever possible. Where adverse geologic conditions were either misinterpreted or ignored, engineering disasters have occurred and environmental cleanup projects were doomed to failure.

The practice of geology should be performed by geologists. Since passage of the Texas Geoscience Practice Act, the Texas Board of Professional Engineers, federal and state agencies and local government have begun to recognize the value of geological input, identify tasks that are geological in nature and require those tasks be performed by licensed geoscientists.