Oil and Gas Watch News

Brendan Gibbons

Three Texas oil & gas industry sites that caught fire had long violation records

The three large refinery and petrochemical facilities along the Texas Gulf Coast that caught fire this month had long track records of environmental compliance problems, including a combined 5,469 violations over a decade but few penalties, according to state records. On May 5, a Shell chemical plant near Houston caught fire and burned for days. Ten days later, flames erupted at a Marathon oil refinery south of Houston, burning to death a plant worker. And on May 17, a blaze broke out at a Valero refinery in Corpus Christi. Long records of repeat violations often indicate a pattern of companies not investing in modern equipment and safety measures.

Lottie Mitchell

Biden’s bioplastics move could be a shell game, swapping one polluting plastic for another

President Biden recently issued an executive order with the goal of replacing 90 percent of current petroleum-based plastics manufacturing with plastic produced using biofuel ingredients like corn or wood, otherwise known as bioplastics. Bioplastics do not cause the same environmental harm as fossil fuel plastics, but they do not biodegrade rapidly and can persist in the environment. Biden’s order also includes chemical plastic recycling as an alternative. Chemical recycling uses heat or solvents to break down the molecular bonds in used plastic products, which generates huge quantities of toxic waste and hazardous air pollutants.

Brendan Gibbons

Shell chemical plant that burned near Houston had a record of nearly 2,000 violations

Shell Deer Park Chemical, which caught fire over the weekend, has a long track record of environmental violations, including 37 enforcement orders and $1.6 million in penalties. One of these violations was for the release of more than 30,000 pounds of a dangerous carcinogen (1,3-butadiene) from vents and a relief valve at the olefins plant over a nearly 24-hour period in January 2013. A track record of noncompliance at an industrial facility can indicate a culture that does not prioritize investments in plant safety.

Ammonia fuel sets sail into an ocean of petroleum-based energy

As the demand for low-carbon energy sources grows, "clean" ammonia – referred to by advocates as either green or blue ammonia, depending on how it is produced – is expected to dramatically increase in production. Developers in the U.S. are proposing 15 new ammonia plants, mostly in Texas and Louisiana, to produce ammonia for fuel. Ammonia could be used as a fuel for ships, or to help produce clean-burning hydrogen for industry. But about two thirds of these "clean" ammonia projects are dependent on untested carbon capture technology.

Alexandra Shaykevich

Ten long-delayed LNG export terminals could lose approvals under new policy

In a policy statement published April 21, the Department of Energy said that it will no longer consider applications for extensions to the current deadline of seven years between when a company receives government permits to export LNG and when exports must actually begin, or risk losing their permit approvals.

Brendan Gibbons

Ten years after West Texas explosion, booming fertilizer industry poses risks to environment and public safety

At a time when the nitrogen fertilizer industry is growing rapidly across the U.S., federal data illustrate how little has been done over the past decade to prevent disasters. Despite urging from the U.S. Chemical Safety board and others for the EPA to add ammonium nitrate to the list of highly hazardous chemicals that would require better disaster planning and information sharing with local first responders, the EPA has not done so.

Brendan Gibbons

Texas lawmakers aim to exempt oil & gas projects from school property taxes, but not clean energy

Texas legislators are considering a bill that would give fossil fuel companies – but not clean energy – huge breaks on the property taxes they pay to local school districts, narrowing a previous tax incentive program for energy projects that expired last year. Under the old program, called Chapter 313, almost three quarters of the $12.3 billion in tax benefits went to manufacturing projects, including for the oil and gas and petrochemical industry, while 26 percent went to clean energy projects.

Brendan Gibbons

Permitting reform could still rise from the ashes of 'dead on arrival' House GOP energy package

With Democrats in control of the Senate and White House, most of the provisions in the energy package passed by the Republican-controlled U.S. House won’t make it into law anytime soon. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats have signaled that they could be open to a narrower discussion on “permitting reform” to streamline the process of approving major energy projects such as pipelines, fuel export terminals, and electrical transmission lines.