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Courtney Bernhardt
/
August 27, 2026

Data centers raced to beat Virginia’s new clean air law

Virginia lawmakers passed a new law in April to curb air pollution from new and expanding data centers with diesel generators, but data center developers raced to beat the deadline, with 19 applications submitted in time to take advantage of the older, dirtier, standards. “Filing an application right before a more health-protective standard takes effect shows that these data centers do not intend to be good neighbors,” said Dr. Mary Finley-Brook, a professor at the University of Richmond.

News Briefs

August 25, 2026
U.S. leaves oil imports out of tariff hike on Canada

When the White House imposed a 50 percent tariff on a range of Canadian products last week, it left out one of the country’s largest exports to the U.S.: crude oil.

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August 25, 2026
AI boom makes U.S. top builder of new gas-fired power plants

The U.S. has surpassed China with the number of new gas-fired power plants in the queue, with about a third of them Texas.

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August 25, 2026
Study examines fossil fuel companies’ role in Western water loss

About half of the loss of average annual snowpack in the American West is attributable to 122 fossil fuel companies and cement producers, according to a new study.

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News Articles

Ari Phillips
/
August 20, 2026

Hawai’i considers tsunami of natural gas with first LNG terminal

Clean energy advocates want the state to reduce its reliance on oil and are pushing for solar and wind. But a Japanese-based energy firm, JERA Americas, is proposing to move away from climate-friendly solutions with the proposed construction of Hawaii's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal to help meet rising power demand. 

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Brendan Gibbons
/
August 13, 2026

Conservation groups raise concerns about 520-mile gas pipeline from West Texas to Phoenix area

A natural gas pipeline planned from West Texas to the Phoenix area would cross sensitive conservation land in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona on its way to provide power for data centers and other large users in central Arizona. The pipeline is one of more than a dozen planned to relieve the industry’s natural gas bottleneck in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, where drilling for oil often also produces gas as a byproduct that must be burned or released.

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Ari Phillips
/
August 6, 2026

Canadian governments propose 2,000-mile oil pipeline from Alberta to eastern refineries

In early July, the premiers of the Canadian Provinces of Alberta and Ontario proposed a massive new West-East oil pipeline that would transport up to 500,000 barrels per day of oil across the country for refineries to process into gasoline and other fuels. The pipeline, known as the Northern Shield Energy Corridor, would end in Sarnio, Ontario, just across the border from Michigan, north of Detroit, and help reduce Canada’s reliance on foreign markets during a time of increased hostility from the Trump Administration.

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Tom Pelton
/
July 30, 2026

16 gas storage projects planned in salt caverns along Gulf Coast for LNG industry and data centers

Companies are planning a wave of 16 projects along the Gulf Coast to store natural gas underground in salt caverns to supply the growing number of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals and provide backup fuel for the booming data center industry. Building so many caves full of methane could lead to more leaks of a powerful greenhouse gas. Eight of the proposed storage caverns would be in Texas, five in Louisiana, and three in Mississippi.

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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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