Oil and Gas Watch News

News Briefs

February 5, 2025
In retaliation against Trump, China slaps tariffs on U.S. fuel exports

In response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese products, China immediately responded with a 15 percent tariff on U.S. liquified natural gas.

February 5, 2025
Trump’s Interior Secretary begins implementing ‘drill, baby, drill’ agenda

On his first day in office, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum put forth six orders meant to increase drilling on federal lands and offshore and cut regulations.

February 5, 2025
Pennsylvania natural gas-fired power generation has doubled over past decade

Natural gas has overtaken nuclear and coal to become Pennsylvania’s main fuel source for electric power generation.

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News Articles

Brendan Gibbons
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January 30, 2025

In rural Texas, residents speak out against pollution from Chevron Phillips’ plastic plant expansion

During a recent public hearing on the operating permit for an expanding petrochemical complex near this tiny town southwest of Houston, local residents exhorted state officials not to approve the permit for Chevron Phillips Chemical. Neighbors are concerned about the plant’s expansion because of its poor environmental track record. The State of Texas issued 93 environmental violations to the plant over the last six years, according to state records. A proposed permit would allow the company to continue operating while it replaces a furnace and produces more ethylene—a raw ingredient in plastics and other chemicals—increasing several types of air pollution, including sulfur dioxide and particulate matter.

Tom Pelton
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January 23, 2025

Trump order to fast-track LNG exports called 'political theater'

In a flurry of Inauguration Day actions to promote his “drill, baby, drill” agenda, President Trump issued an executive order declaring a “national energy emergency.” He also directed the Department of Energy to restart reviews of permits for the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) “as expeditiously as possible.” But experts say there is no factual basis for Trump’s “national energy emergency,” with the amount of oil and gas produced in the U.S. soaring to record-breaking volumes during the Biden Administration. And Presidential orders do not direct the actions of FERC, an independent federal agency that reviews LNG terminals.

Tom Pelton
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January 16, 2025

Thousands of permits to drill on federal lands are not being used. So why 'expedite' more?

After campaigning on “Drill, Baby, Drill!” one of the first things that President-elect Trump and Republicans are expected to do when they take office next week is to accelerate the approval of permits to drill for oil and gas on federal land. But more drilling permits don’t appear to be needed. That’s because there are more than 6,000 approved permits for oil and gas companies to drill on federal lands that are available but sitting idle and not being used. Millions of acres of federal lands leased to oil and gas companies for drilling are also not being used.

Alexandra Shaykevich
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January 9, 2025

Manufacturers of ammonia plan a boom in the U.S. Will it bust under Trump?

The United States is on the cusp of quadrupling its ammonia production capacity in the next five years—a move that could come with serious risks to human health and the environment. Ammonia, a chemical that is usually manufactured from natural gas, is used for synthetic fertilizers and explosives. Proponents now want to use it as a shipping fuel and to make hydrogen for clean energy. As of December 2024, 38 proposed ammonia projects across the U.S. could increase annual ammonia production capacity by over 60 million metric tons per year by 2030. That would result in a near quadrupling of the amount of ammonia production capacity in the U.S. today, from 21 million metric tons to 81 million metric tons.

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