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Ari Phillips
/
May 14, 2026

Trump rebrands struggling oil refinery project along Texas coast as ‘America First’ refinery

In mid-March, amid a spike in gas prices brought on by the war in Iran, President Trump announced that American First Refining would build a crude oil refinery outside of Brownsville, Texas. The announcement did not mention that, for almost a decade, the 240-acre Port of Brownsville site has been at the center of a struggling effort to construct a 160,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery under a different name.

News Briefs

May 13, 2026
Trump proposes pausing gasoline tax as Iran war spikes fuel costs

With the war in Iran spiking gasoline prices over 50 percent, President Donald Trump this week said he hopes to suspend a federal tax on gasoline, which would require action from Congress.

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May 13, 2026
Application withdrawn for Southeast Texas plant that would turn natural gas to plastics

On May 6, Energy Transfer withdrew its application for an air permit to build a new ethane cracker in Nederland, Texas, an area of increasing industrial development between Beaumont and Port Arthur.

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May 13, 2026
Meetings planned across North Dakota for new 374-mile gas pipeline project

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will hold five meetings across North Dakota starting next week on a new natural gas pipeline approved to receive hundreds of millions in state funding.

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News Articles

Brendan Gibbons
/
May 7, 2026

Iran war inflates price of fossil fuel-based fertilizer and groceries

The consequences of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran have rippled far beyond oil markets. Strikes on natural gas infrastructure in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have spiked global fertilizer prices during a critical period for farmers. The price of urea, a granular nitrogen fertilizer that is vital for corn, wheat, rice, and cotton crops, has increased 45 percent since the war began.

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Victoria Zurner
/
April 30, 2026

The Keystone XL pipeline returns as ‘Keystone Light,’ but still faces heavy opposition

The Bridger Pipeline Expansion, sometimes called the “Keystone XL Light” Pipeline, is a proposed crude oil pipeline that would travel 647 miles through eastern Montana and Wyoming, along the border with North and South Dakota. In some ways, the project is similar to its predecessor, the Keystone XL Pipeline, which was declared dead in 2021 after an intense battle over its environmental impact.

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Tom Pelton
/
April 20, 2026

After surviving brush with death, pastor fights to save his community from industrial 'MegaPark'

Twenty-two years after being diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease and given three years to live, Pastor Harry Joseph is not only still alive and strong but more inspired than ever to fight to save his community. He and his daughter are leaders in a David vs. Goliath legal battle by the small, historically Black community of Modeste, Louisiana, to stop a proposal by developers to replace their neighborhood with a massive industrial park called the RiverPlex Mega Park. “When God healed me, he healed me to put me in the position that I am now – to help other people with their struggles,” the Rev. Joseph said.

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Brendan Gibbons
/
April 9, 2026

Billions in Venezuelan oil revenue draw Congressional scrutiny as Iran war reshapes U.S. energy strategy

Three months after U.S. special forces extracted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from Caracas in a nighttime raid, the Trump Administration’s handling of billions of dollars in Venezuelan oil revenue has become the subject of Congressional scrutiny. Questions are being raised as the administration scrambles to unlock Venezuelan crude to offset a fuel crisis driven by the U.S. attack on Iran. The administration last month lifted sanctions on Venezuela’s oil put in place in January 2019, during Trump’s first term.

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In Depth Reports

The Lone Star State’s Gas Plant Boom

A wave of 130 natural gas power plant projects in the Lone Star State, proposed in part to feed the artificial intelligence boom, could release as much greenhouse gas pollution as 27 million cars and trucks driving for a year, according to a report from the Environmental Integrity Project.

Pollution from Oil Refineries with Outdated Boilers and Heaters

The Environmental Integrity Project examined publicly available data and records for the 20 petroleum refineries in the U.S. that reported emitting the most greenhouse gases in 2023. Out of the refinery boilers and heaters with age information, 87 percent of these units (739 of 845) are outdated.

Plastic's Toxic River

The Environmental Integrity Project examined the records of 70 U.S. facilities that make plastics or the main chemical ingredients in plastics and found they discharged almost 12 million pounds in 2023 of total nitrogen and phosphorus.

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