Oil and Gas Watch News
Tom Pelton
/
May 8, 2025

In an ironic twist, drilling has declined under Trump’s “Drill, Baby, Drill”

Despite recent announcements that the Trump Administration will accelerate environmental reviews for energy projects, drilling in the U.S. is down slightly so far under Trump. The number of active drilling rigs in the U.S. is down about 4 percent in the first quarter of the year, compared to the first quarter of 2024 under former President Joe Biden. The number of wells drilled and wells completed—meaning oil and gas have begun flowing—are both down 2 percent.

News Briefs

May 7, 2025
Trump administration seeks break for oil executives accused of colluding to raise fuel prices

President Donald Trump’s Federal Trade Commission chair has moved to cancel restrictions on two oil company executives accused of working with foreign governments to raise oil prices.

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May 7, 2025
Mountain Valley Pipeline seeks ‘emergency’ wetlands permit for VA, NC expansion

The pipeline's developers are seeking a permit to disturb 17 acres of wetlands as part of a plan to extend the pipeline from southern Virginia to northern North Carolina.

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May 7, 2025
Plans cancelled for Houston-area plant to produce natural gas derivatives

A planned facility to produce a blend called synthesis gas, or “syngas,” from natural gas in Texas City, Texas, has been cancelled.

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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
/
April 30, 2025

California pipeline that burst in 2015 is now being rebuilt against state orders

The California Coastal Commission recently issued an $18.2 million fine against a Texas-based company for unpermitted construction on a pipeline network that has been dormant since a major spill in 2015. The network of pipelines connects to three offshore oil platforms called the Santa Ynez Unit and was the source of the Refugio Oil Spill, which released more than 100,000 gallons, caused significant environmental damage to about 150 miles of coastline, shut down beaches for two months, and killed over 550 seabirds.

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Ari Phillips
/
April 24, 2025

America's largest gas plant grows out of artificial intelligence's hunger for power

After the smokestacks and cooling towers that served Pennsylvania’s largest coal plant were torn down last month, an enormous gas-fired power plant was announced at the site about an hour east of Pittsburgh. If completed, it will become America’s largest methane-powered electric generation facility – and a continuing source of greenhouse gas emissions. More than 200 proposed natural gas power plants have been announced recently across the U.S. to help power the AI data center market.

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Brendan Gibbons
/
April 10, 2025

Industry lobbyists seek two-year break from limits on cancer-causing pollution from 218 facilities nationwide

Organizations representing heavily polluting industries are taking advantage of the Trump Administration’s offer to exempt them from hazardous air pollution control rules for two years. The rules apply to 218 facilities that make up some of the largest petrochemical complexes in the U.S. Exempting companies from these rules could expose the public to more than 12 million pounds per year of hazardous air pollutants – chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, or other serious health problems, based on an EPA estimate in April 2024. ‍

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Brendan Gibbons
/
April 3, 2025

Hundreds of landowners in the path of gas pipeline projects planned across Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia

In Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama, the Houston-based Kinder Morgan is in the early stages of seeking authorization for a 279-mile pipeline called the South System Expansion 4 project, which would mostly run parallel to existing, decades-old pipelines owned by Southern Natural Gas, a Kinder Morgan subsidiary. In Mississippi and Alabama, Kinder Morgan has submitted initial plans for a new 206-mile long pipeline that would cross through some of the poorest counties in the state. The Mississippi Crossing project would stretch from Choctaw County in Alabama to Washington County in Mississippi, cutting east-to-west and including the construction of three compressor stations.

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