Trump Administration gives pipeline companies a new way to sidestep safety rules

As companies plan a massive expansion of fossil fuel pipelines across the U.S., the Trump Administration is making it easier for operators to avoid following pipeline safety regulations. Under a new policy directive, the nation’s pipeline safety agency stated it would not take up enforcement actions against companies that receive waivers to avoid safety rules. Concerns of spills and explosions grow among environmental groups.

News Briefs

February 11, 2026

Data from satellite tracking methane releases shows that emissions surpass what’s officially recorded

Data from MethaneSAT, the Environmental Defense Fund’s methane-detecting satellite, shows that major oil and gas operations are underreporting methane emissions in official inventories.

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February 11, 2026

Bureau of Land Management announces new oil and gas lease sale in Alaska

On March 18, 2026, BLM will hold an oil and gas lease sale for about 5.5 million acres within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.

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February 11, 2026

New oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico to be held in March

On March 11, 2026, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will hold an oil and gas lease sale that covers over 80 million acres of the outer continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico, according to E&E News.

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News Articles

Ari Phillips

January 29, 2026

After economic ‘rupture’ with U.S., Canada looks to Asia for oil exports

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney signed a sweeping agreement with the government of Alberta, home to the country’s vast tar sands oil reserves, laying the groundwork for a new oil pipeline to transport oil to British Columbia’s northern coast for export. With Canada engaged in an increasingly tense trade war with the United States, Carney is seeking to send more of Canada’s oil to Asia and to develop stronger energy sector relations with Pacific Rim countries.

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Brendan Gibbons

January 22, 2026

In Trump’s first year, fuel prices and energy jobs fall far short of campaign promises

Since Trump took office in January 2025, gasoline prices have declined about 6 percent to an average of $3.02 at the end of December, far short of Trump's campaign promises to cut fuel prices in half and bring the price at the pump down to $2 per gallon. Low fuel prices are a result of persistently low oil prices, which is causing pain for oil and gas workers as companies cut thousands of jobs.

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Tom Pelton

January 15, 2026

U.S. oil refinery investors, not consumers, will benefit from seizure of Venezuelan oil

The U.S. military’s seizure of Venezuela’s oil exports is unlikely to lower gasoline prices for consumers – as President Donald Trump has claimed – but could funnel billions of dollars to American oil companies that donated to Trump’s election, according to industry analysts. Among the oil refinery owners who could benefit is billionaire Trump donor Paul Singer, founder of an investment management company that is buying Citgo Petroleum, a refining firm owned by Venezuela’s state oil company. Also positioned to potentially cash in are ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Chevron, which also gave millions to Trump’s political campaign.

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Brendan Gibbons

January 8, 2026

The top Oil & Gas Watch News stories of 2025, according to readers

In 2025, Oil & Gas Watch News chronicled the first year of President Donald Trump’s “drill, baby, drill,” agenda, and many of our most popular articles examined the reality behind the rhetoric of his energy promises. Other top stories of 2025 covered massive but little-known energy projects in Alaska and Louisiana, as well as on federal public lands across the West.

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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.

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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.

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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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Trump Administration gives pipeline companies a new way to sidestep safety rules

News Briefs

News Articles

After economic ‘rupture’ with U.S., Canada looks to Asia for oil exports

In Trump’s first year, fuel prices and energy jobs fall far short of campaign promises

U.S. oil refinery investors, not consumers, will benefit from seizure of Venezuelan oil

The top Oil & Gas Watch News stories of 2025, according to readers

Videos

In Depth Reports

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