News Articles
Biden Administration offers drillers 67 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico – but industry sues over protections for whales
On Wednesday, the Biden Administration plans to offer leases for sale to oil and gas companies allowing drilling on 67 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico. But the oil and gas industry is suing because the Biden Administration plans to block drilling on a small portion of the underwater acres to protect a threatened species of whale: the Rice's whale.
First-ever EPA data show gas processing plants emit thousands of pounds of carcinogens per year
Before natural gas can be routed through the pipelines that fuel power plants, homes, and businesses, it must be processed at a gas processing plant to remove contaminants or to separate raw materials used to make chemicals or plastics. According to data available for the first time this year, 258 gas processing plants reported releasing a combined total of 3.2 million pounds of toxic air pollutants in 2022, including benzene and formaldehyde, both carcinogens.
Despite Biden climate promises, oil production on federal lands is rising
After a campaign pledge of "no more drilling on federal lands," the Biden Administration approved 8,072 drilling permits on public lands from the month after the president’s inauguration through July 2023, nearly as many as the 8,293 under former President Donald Trump for a comparable period. The total amount of oil produced with these permits is higher so far under President Biden than Trump.
What causes long-delayed 'zombie' projects? The market, not government permit reviews
At least seven oil and gas mega-projects across the U.S. have delayed construction as a result of bankruptcy, financing delays, or market forces. All of these projects -- including an LNG terminal and two fertilizer plants -- were issued permits to allow construction more than seven years ago but have failed to move forward. The reality that often it's economics -- not slow government reviews of environmental permits -- that creates long-stalled "zombie" projects undercuts arguments that Congress needs permitting reform to fast track permit approvals.
In eastern Ohio, environmental justice fight brews over a tires-to-energy plant
A debate over a proposal to convert waste tires to energy is generating a stir in Youngstown, a former steel hub that's still recovering after the decline of the steel industry in the 1970s. The proposal is one of at least 32 new chemical recycling plants proposed across the U.S. that would convert waste products such as tires and plastics into fuel or ingredients for manufacturing new plastics, chemicals, or other products. Almost two thirds of the residents around the Youngstown project are people of color or lower income.
Small western PA refinery topped list for most injuries among workers, with 119 over five years, federal data show
After a series of fires and explosions at U.S. oil refineries in the first half of 2023, Oil & Gas Watch News examined records of injuries and deaths at refineries nationwide. From August 2, 2017, to March 3, 2023, 153 refineries nationwide reported a total of 1,539 injuries and seven deaths. A small refinery in western Pennsylvania, the United Refining Company in Warren, had by far the worst safety record, with 119 injuries and no deaths over this period, according to federal records. That was 10 times the average for a refinery.
New EPA report: Plastics chemical found in drinking water poses elevated cancer risk
1,4-Dioxane is a colorless liquid with a faint sweet odor used as an industrial solvent, ingredient, and byproduct in the production of plastics and consumer products since the 1950s. The chemical is also found in hydraulic fracturing fluid and at plastic plants that produce polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, a common plastic used to make bottles, food packaging, and clothing. The EPA is accepting public comments on its findings on 1,4-Dioxane until Sept. 8, 2023.
Factory near Houston would convert garbage into jet fuel. “Green” energy or trash talk?
In Baytown, east of Houston, Fulcrum Bioenergy plans to build facility that converts landfill trash, including single-use plastic, into jet fuel. The company recently opened a similar plant near Reno, Nevada. Proponents see the idea of using garbage to make jet fuel as an environmental win-win and effective way to decarbonize the aviation industry. However, some environmentalists doubt whether the technology is viable and point to the hundreds of tons of air pollution per year the plant would generate.
Temperatures rise over whether EPA should allow Louisiana to permit carbon waste burial projects
This summer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to rule on a petition by Louisiana for state authority to issue permits for carbon dioxide waste disposal wells that would allow petrochemical companies to capture the climate-warming pollutant from their smokestacks and bury it underground. Encouraged by billions of dollars in public subsidies offered by the Biden Administration, oil and gas companies and other industries are proposing at least 27 carbon capture and sequestration projects in Louisiana, including beneath the Gulf of Mexico.
The U.S. LNG export boom is spreading to Mexico, creating new environmental threats
Developers are planning six LNG terminals capable of liquefying and exporting natural gas from Mexico, including three planned for highly sensitive areas of the Gulf of California in the country’s northwest. The LNG terminals would rely on U.S. natural gas, mostly from West Texas, and would export most of their gas to Asian countries. The Mexican terminals could compete for customers with 30 new or expanding U.S. LNG terminals either under construction or proposed but not yet built, mostly in the Gulf of Mexico.
EPA report: Houston plastics plant at risk of explosion
In November 2019, a TPC Group plastics chemical plant in Port Neches, Texas, exploded and burned for more than a month, causing evacuations of nearby residents and forcing schools to close. A TPC plastics plant in Houston has some of the same potential problems as caused the Port Neches disaster: dead-end sections of pipe called "dead legs," according to an EPA inspection. A similar explosion at the Houston facility could be even more catastrophic, because 8,000 people live within a mile.
Outdated safety rules at LNG terminals include measure meant to prevent accidents
The amount of natural gas sent abroad from the U.S. more than quadrupled since 2015. However, experts say that safety regulations for liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals are lagging. Eight of the nine LNG safety standards overseen by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration are outdated, including one meant to protect against explosions from the refrigerant gases uses to liquify the methane gas.
Federally-funded carbon waste disposal projects ignite opposition
More than 100 carbon capture and storage projects are proposed across the U.S., including 27 in Louisiana, because of billion of dollars in new federal tax credits. Many of these pollution burial projects are drawing opposition from local residents and scientists. One is in the fragile wetlands of southern Louisiana, where a Dallas-based company called Cox Oil received federal funding to help build a 110-mile carbon dioxide pipeline from petrochemical plants in Geismar, Louisiana, into the Gulf of Mexico near Grand Isle.
Texas fishermen worry revived dredging project for bigger oil tankers will harm their catch
Federal and local officials are planning a dredging project along the Texas Gulf Coast that would make more room for larger oil tankers headed for an export terminal in Matagorda Bay. Fishermen and environmental advocates worry the dredging will disturb a decades-old Superfund site contaminated with mercury and destroy hundreds of acres of habitat for shrimp, oysters, and other seafood species. Since the U.S. lifted a ban on exporting crude oil in 2015, companies have built or proposed at least 11 new or expanded oil terminals along the Gulf Coast.
Biden Administration may spend billions funding 'clean' hydrogen made with fossil fuels
Some hydrogen energy advocates envision a future where factories will split water molecules into clean hydrogen fuel. But half of the proposed hydrogen production sites currently under consideration for $8 billion in federal funding could use fossil fuels to make their hydrogen fuel, raising doubts about how “clean” the fuel would really be.
