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October 17, 2024

Leaks at Illinois carbon injection project cast a shadow on the future of taxpayer-subsidized carbon capture

An ethanol plant in central Illinois has stopped injecting carbon dioxide (CO2) into the ground after a potential leak was discovered on the property for the second time this year. The problems at the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) plant raise questions about the safety of about 150 other carbon capture wells proposed across the U.S., most with taxpayer funding.

News Briefs

October 16, 2024
New Regulations on Oil & Gas in Colorado Weigh Long-Term Impacts

Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission approved new rules for oil and gas development that will require operators to consider cumulative impacts of past, present, and future oil and gas development.

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October 16, 2024
Authorities Investigate Fatal Hydrogen Sulfide Leak at Refinery East of Houston

A hydrogen sulfide leak at the Pemex refinery in Deer Park, TX, killed two workers and injured at least 35 others on October 10. The Mexican oil company now faces multiple lawsuits.

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October 16, 2024
Permits paused for 32-mile natural gas pipeline in Tennessee after federal appeals court ruling

A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked construction on a new pipeline meant to deliver gas to a proposed power plant in Tennessee.

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News Articles

October 10, 2024
Brendan Gibbons

In deep-red Texas, neighbors fight gas power plant next door – one of scores proposed across U.S.

Sandow Lakes Energy’s proposed plant is one of scores of new natural gas-fired power plants planned across the U.S., with the surge driven by cheap gas from hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling and compounded by increased demand from artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency computer centers. In Texas alone there are currently over 150 proposed projects to build new or expand existing gas-fired power plants, according to Environmental Integrity Project research based on data from state and federal agencies. The increased burning of fossil fuels – instead of using clean energy, like solar or wind – to satisfy this growing hunger for electricity threatens U.S. climate goals.

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October 3, 2024
Ari Phillips

Despite history of pollution violations, fertilizer plant receives taxpayer subsidies to expand

In late August, the U.S Department of Agriculture awarded AdvanSix Resins and Chemicals, a massive fertilizer and chemical manufacturing plant in Hopewell, Virginia, a nearly $12 million grant to increase its production of the fertilizer ingredient ammonium sulfate. The plant has a long history of environmental violations. Its expansion is part of a national boom in U.S. fertilizer production over the last decade and a half, fueled in part by hydraulic fracturing’s downward pressure on the price of natural gas, which is a primary ingredient in nitrogen fertilizer.

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September 26, 2024
Brendan Gibbons

A debate over $100 billion in taxpayer subsidies could set the fate of the U.S. hydrogen industry

When hydrogen is burned, it releases only water vapor and no greenhouse gases, making it a potentially climate-friendly fuel for uses like steel production and cement manufacturing depending on how the hydrogen is made. But hydrogen is expensive to produce, which is why the Biden Administration and Congress provided up to $100 billion in taxpayer subsidies for hydrogen production in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Those proposed rules have ignited a debate over how strict those rules should be, with some energy companies lobbying for subsidies for hydrogen made from natural gas.

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September 19, 2024
Ari Phillips

Latest version of energy permitting fast-tracking bill has environmental movement balking

In late July, senators Joe Manchin and John Barrasso, who represent two of the U.S.'s biggest fossil-fuel producing states (West Virginia and Wyoming) announced the latest iteration of their long-sought bill that would accelerate the permitting process for energy projects—including LNG plants, electricity transmission lines, clean energy and fossil fuel power plants. Called the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024, the senators said the legislation would, “strengthen American energy security by accelerating the permitting process for critical energy and mineral projects of all types.” But environmental groups criticize the bill for giving away too much to polluting industries and fast-tracking a review process meant to protect public health and the environment.

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In Depth Reports
The Long Shadow of Oil Refinery Waste

The use of an oil refinery waste product, petroleum coke, as an ingredient in metals and other products releases large amounts of health-damaging air pollutants, often in disadvantaged communities. The…

Flaws in EPA’s Monitoring and Verification of Carbon Capture Projects

The Environmental Integrity Project examined one central component of carbon capture and sequestration regulation in the U.S.: monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) plans required by the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting…

‍Feeding the Plastics Industrial Complex

Billions of taxpayer dollars in the U.S. are helping to pay for dangerous, and often illegal, air pollution from a rapidly-growing plastics industry that disproportionately threatens Black and Latino communities…

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