Oil and Gas Watch News
Brendan Gibbons
/
November 21, 2024

Trump’s pick for Interior Secretary likely to increase drilling on federal public land 

To run the U.S. Department of the Interior and supervise drilling on federal land, President-elect Donald Trump last week selected Doug Burgum, a billionaire former software executive and real estate developer who has served as North Dakota’s governor since 2016. If confirmed by the Senate, Burgum would oversee the federal agency most in charge of oil and gas leasing and development in federal coastal waters and on federal lands. Project 2025, often seen as a playbook for the next Trump Administration, calls for a rollback of Biden’s efforts to reduce leasing on federal lands, as well as to “conduct offshore oil and natural gas leases to the maximum extent possible.” 

News Briefs

December 4, 2024
Analysts say Trump tariffs on Canadian oil would increase U.S. gasoline prices

In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on exports from Canada, energy analysts are saying the proposal would increase fuel prices for Americans.

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December 4, 2024
FERC suspends its approval of CP2 LNG terminal in Louisiana to make time for additional air quality review

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has delayed the construction of a new liquified natural gas terminal in Southwest Louisiana until it can redo its analysis of how the project would affect local air quality.

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December 4, 2024
Indorama seeks tax breaks for plastics plant expansion in Westlake, Louisiana

After already receiving tens of millions in tax breaks, Indorama has again applied for incentives for its chemical production facility, which has emitted air pollution beyond its legal limits.

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In Depth Reports

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.

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.

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 Program.

News Articles

Ari Phillips
/
November 21, 2024

Plastics plants dump 1,4-dioxane and other pollutants with no EPA limits

In South Carolina, a plastics manufacturing plant called Alpek Polyester Columbia dumped about 30,000 pounds of a chemical, 1,4-dioxane, into the Congaree River last year, with no limits on the pollutant – a likely carcinogen – in the plant’s discharge permit. The Alpek plant was the largest discharger of 1,4-dioxane among plastics plants in the U.S. last year, releasing a pollutant that EPA last week concluded “poses an unreasonable risk of injury to human health” including in drinking water. But despite this risk, EPA has set no national standards for plastics manufacturing plants to control 1,4-dioxane or several other harmful pollutants, according to a new report by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) called “Plastic’s Toxic River.”

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Tom Pelton
/
November 14, 2024

Why Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ policies will not reduce U.S. oil and gasoline prices

Donald Trump won a return to the White House in part by convincing American voters that he would unleash more oil and gas production, which would reduce fuel prices, curb inflation and cut grocery prices. But petroleum industry experts doubt this will work in a global market. Energy experts say American companies will not simply produce more petroleum and sell fuel at a lower price because competing nations like Saudi Arabia could simply reduce their own production and keep global prices high for their own financial or political reasons.

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Brendan Gibbons
/
November 7, 2024

After securing $135 million in tax breaks, pipeline company plans massive ethane “cracker” in Southeast Texas

In Nederland, Texas, pipeline company Energy Transfer is proposing to build a massive new facility that would turn the components of natural gas into the basic chemicals used to make single-use plastics and other petrochemicals. The facility has garnered $134.6 million in tax breaks over 10 years from the local school district, despite being capable of emitting more than 8,500 tons per year of harmful air pollutants and more greenhouse gas emissions than a coal-fired power plant.

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Alexandra Shaykevich
/
October 31, 2024

America’s first 'gas to liquids' plant could produce fuel in North Dakota

The the North Dakota Public Service Commission recently approved a siting permit for a Canadian company called Cerilon to build a gas-to-liquids plant in Trenton, about 10 minutes from the Montana border in a shale formation with some of the most productive oil and gas fields in the country. Gas-to-liquids technology chemically separates the components of natural gas into liquid fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel that are usually made from petroleum. The idea has been around for nearly a century – but large-scale applications in the U.S. have faced significant delays or cancellations, in part because of economics.

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