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Brendan Gibbons
/
July 9, 2026

Trump Administration’s embrace of biofuels likely to drive up fuel costs and increase pollution

In March, the Trump Administration updated the U.S.’s Renewable Fuel Standard to require more plant-based fuel to be used in American cars and trucks than ever before, drawing praise from soybean farmers and agribusiness groups. The new standard requires refiners and fuel importers to blend in record-high amounts of plant-based diesel – 60 percent more than last year. The change is the largest annual increase in the program’s history, according to commodities analysis group Argus. The administration also maintained an existing mandate to blend 15 billion gallons per year of corn ethanol into motor gasoline.

News Briefs

July 15, 2026
Mitsubishi becomes big U.S. natural gas player after $7.5 billion deal

Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi is deepening its bet on U.S. natural gas, with demand rising because of liquified natural gas exports and the artificial intelligence boom.

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July 15, 2026
Colorado voters to decide on ‘right to natural gas’ in state constitution

Voters are set to vote in November on a ballot measure pushed that would add companies’ rights to sell natural gas to the state constitution.

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July 15, 2026
Company plans 154-mile natural gas pipeline from East Texas to Louisiana

A subsidiary of Houston-based Boardwalk Pipelines is planning a new project meant to move gas to western Louisiana.

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News Articles

Ari Phillips
/
July 1, 2026

Wave of gas plants for data centers threatens communities with pollution, costs, and water consumption

“The Power Behind AI,” a recent report by the Environmental Integrity Project, found that at least 74 natural gas-fired power plants are planned across the U.S. to provide energy for the rapidly growing data center industry. These proposed gas plants, which would be dedicated to serving data centers, are expected to release nearly 662 million tons per year of greenhouse gas pollution, the equivalent of 140 million cars and trucks driving for a year or the annual emissions from the entire nations of Australia or France. 

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Brendan Gibbons
/
June 25, 2026

Texas’s orphaned well count continues to grow, contaminating land and water and hurting taxpayers

As of April 2026, the number of orphaned wells – which are abandoned wells with no known or financially-solvent owners – increased by 37 percent compared to last year, reaching over 12,000 wells. The number of orphaned wells continues to grow as older wells are sold off to increasingly smaller companies with fewer resources that sometimes fail to plug their wells or go out of business. Current regulations also allow companies to postpone plugging their wells indefinitely.

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Ari Phillips
/
June 18, 2026

The Iran war has helped U.S. plastics manufacturers while hurting consumers

President Donald Trump on June 17 signed a preliminary agreement that could potentially end the conflict, but it’s not clear the deal will hold and global disruption is likely to reverberate for months even after the war eventually ends. The war has boosted profits for plastics manufacturers while adding to the costs faced by consumers already battered by rising costs. The wartime closure of the Strait of Hormuz, where about $20 to $25 billion ‌worth of petrochemical products pass through annually, sent prices for polyethylene and other plastic ingredients soaring.

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Brendan Gibbons
/
June 11, 2026

Trump Administration proposes allowing companies to start building industrial plants without air permits

Under the federal Clean Air Act, power plants and other potential sources of pollution must apply to state or federal environmental agencies and receive what is called a “preconstruction permit” before they roll in the cement mixers. But on May 13, the administration proposed making it legal for companies to begin construction on new projects – including data centers, power plants, and other major manufacturing facilities like steel mills, chemical plants, and liquefied natural gas terminals – before they even receive permits that authorize the project.

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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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