[Updated] Attendance at Oil Industry Rallies in Texas Falls Short of Expectations

Our sister-publication, The American Independent, reports that only 80 people showed up to a rally in Corpus Christi and several hundred attended a similar rally in Houston. Organizers had estimated that 5,000 people would show up to the Houston rally.

[Update: More than 5,000 people attended the rally in Houston, according to estimates from the American Petroleum Institute. The figure falls in line with the group's expectations. A source that attended the rally confirms that thousands were there. TWI regrets the error.]

According to the story:

A relaxed group of about 80 oil-and-gas proponents responded to the American Petroleum Institute’s appeal to rally in Corpus Christi against extending the deepwater drilling moratorium and additional federal regulations on the sector.

Organizers of the simultaneous rallies in Corpus Christi, Houston and Port Arthur had predicted that several thousand people would participate in the events, the first three of seven rallies planed in five states through Sept. 10. A live video feed of the Houston event–the largest of the Texas rallies–showed what appeared to be hundreds of people in attendance.

The Houston Chronicle reported that organizers expected 5,000 people to show up for the Houston rally.