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The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday granted Texas permission to authorize companies to capture and store carbon dioxide underground, fulfilling a key wish for the state’s oil and gas industry.

The approval comes after a two-year federal review of the Railroad Commission of Texas, the agency regulating oil and gas. The agency needed to prove it could enforce federal rules, a requirement that supporters of the effort said it could do better than the EPA. Critics have said that state regulators have a history of being too lax on the oil and gas industry.

In a statement, the Texas Oil and Gas Association,

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