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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.

Ari Phillips
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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.

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.

Ari Phillips
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March 27, 2025

New York State ignites protests by clearing way for its first major fossil fuel project in nearly a decade

On Feb. 7, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Department of Environmental Conservation issued permits to expand the capacity of two compressor stations that force methane through the 33-year-old Iroquois Pipeline, which carries fuel from the Canadian border through upstate New York, Connecticut, and Long Island to New York City. The announcement drew immediate ire from the state’s environmental community, which has been advocating to move the Democratic-majority state away from fossil fuels as a strategy to combat climate change.

Brendan Gibbons
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March 13, 2025

Congress repeals oil and gas methane pollution fee, costing taxpayers $7.2 billion

On Feb. 27, Congress passed legislation killing a charge on waste methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. At a time when the Trump Administration is firing thousands of federal workers, allegedly to save taxpayer money, eliminating the pollution control fee will cost taxpayers $7.2 billion in uncollected revenue from the oil & gas industry over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Brendan Gibbons
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March 6, 2025

Trump’s move to shortcut bedrock environmental law will lead to more delays, experts say

Over the past few weeks, the Trump Administration has taken aim at the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), one of the nation’s bedrock environmental laws. Trump and Republicans have said they want to cut bureaucratic red tape and speed up permitting for big projects, such as pipelines, fuel export terminals, and electricity transmission lines. But legal experts say the move will likely only sow confusion and slow the process down.

Tom Pelton
/
February 20, 2025

Wetlands and waterways at risk in Trump Administration’s ‘energy emergency’ permit reviews

Wetlands are critical for filtering drinking water, protecting people from flooding and storm surges, and serving as a breeding ground for valuable fish, shrimp, and crabs. President Trump undermined protections for wetlands earlier this month when – as part of his “energy emergency” executive order – his administration directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to perform fast-track “emergency” reviews of 688 applications for permits to destroy wetlands or impact waterways across the country. Some of the projects have nothing to do with energy.

Brendan Gibbons
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February 13, 2025

Trump’s proposal to expand offshore drilling is unpopular in key Republican states

President Donald Trump is pushing for an expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling across the U.S., a proposal with a history of opposition even among leaders of the Republican party. Among the 42 executive orders Trump signed on his first day was an attempt to repeal Biden’s Jan. 6 order to protect most U.S. offshore waters from leasing for oil and gas. Biden’s order applied to federal waters in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Alaska and the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, though Biden allowed oil and gas production to continue in the western and central Gulf.

Brendan Gibbons
/
January 30, 2025

In rural Texas, residents speak out against pollution from Chevron Phillips’ plastic plant expansion

During a recent public hearing on the operating permit for an expanding petrochemical complex near this tiny town southwest of Houston, local residents exhorted state officials not to approve the permit for Chevron Phillips Chemical. Neighbors are concerned about the plant’s expansion because of its poor environmental track record. The State of Texas issued 93 environmental violations to the plant over the last six years, according to state records. A proposed permit would allow the company to continue operating while it replaces a furnace and produces more ethylene—a raw ingredient in plastics and other chemicals—increasing several types of air pollution, including sulfur dioxide and particulate matter.

Tom Pelton
/
January 23, 2025

Trump order to fast-track LNG exports called 'political theater'

In a flurry of Inauguration Day actions to promote his “drill, baby, drill” agenda, President Trump issued an executive order declaring a “national energy emergency.” He also directed the Department of Energy to restart reviews of permits for the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) “as expeditiously as possible.” But experts say there is no factual basis for Trump’s “national energy emergency,” with the amount of oil and gas produced in the U.S. soaring to record-breaking volumes during the Biden Administration. And Presidential orders do not direct the actions of FERC, an independent federal agency that reviews LNG terminals.

Tom Pelton
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January 16, 2025

Thousands of permits to drill on federal lands are not being used. So why 'expedite' more?

After campaigning on “Drill, Baby, Drill!” one of the first things that President-elect Trump and Republicans are expected to do when they take office next week is to accelerate the approval of permits to drill for oil and gas on federal land. But more drilling permits don’t appear to be needed. That’s because there are more than 6,000 approved permits for oil and gas companies to drill on federal lands that are available but sitting idle and not being used. Millions of acres of federal lands leased to oil and gas companies for drilling are also not being used.

Alexandra Shaykevich
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January 9, 2025

Manufacturers of ammonia plan a boom in the U.S. Will it bust under Trump?

The United States is on the cusp of quadrupling its ammonia production capacity in the next five years—a move that could come with serious risks to human health and the environment. Ammonia, a chemical that is usually manufactured from natural gas, is used for synthetic fertilizers and explosives. Proponents now want to use it as a shipping fuel and to make hydrogen for clean energy. As of December 2024, 38 proposed ammonia projects across the U.S. could increase annual ammonia production capacity by over 60 million metric tons per year by 2030. That would result in a near quadrupling of the amount of ammonia production capacity in the U.S. today, from 21 million metric tons to 81 million metric tons.

Brendan Gibbons
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January 2, 2025

The top Oil & Gas Watch News stories of 2024, according to readers

Oil & Gas Watch News has covered a huge variety of stories over the past year, with stories taking us from Puerto Rico to North Carolina and detailing topics as diverse as carbon capture and storage, fertilizer made from natural gas, and the EPA’s efforts to crack down on climate-polluting laughing gas. However, of all the topics covered in our 44 articles published this year, a few rose to the top as fan favorites – according to you, our readers. Here we have ranked the stories that drew the most readers to the site.

Brendan Gibbons
/
November 21, 2024

Trump’s pick for Interior Secretary likely to increase drilling on federal public land 

To run the U.S. Department of the Interior and supervise drilling on federal land, President-elect Donald Trump last week selected Doug Burgum, a billionaire former software executive and real estate developer who has served as North Dakota’s governor since 2016. If confirmed by the Senate, Burgum would oversee the federal agency most in charge of oil and gas leasing and development in federal coastal waters and on federal lands. Project 2025, often seen as a playbook for the next Trump Administration, calls for a rollback of Biden’s efforts to reduce leasing on federal lands, as well as to “conduct offshore oil and natural gas leases to the maximum extent possible.” 

Ari Phillips
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November 21, 2024

Plastics plants dump 1,4-dioxane and other pollutants with no EPA limits

In South Carolina, a plastics manufacturing plant called Alpek Polyester Columbia dumped about 30,000 pounds of a chemical, 1,4-dioxane, into the Congaree River last year, with no limits on the pollutant – a likely carcinogen – in the plant’s discharge permit. The Alpek plant was the largest discharger of 1,4-dioxane among plastics plants in the U.S. last year, releasing a pollutant that EPA last week concluded “poses an unreasonable risk of injury to human health” including in drinking water. But despite this risk, EPA has set no national standards for plastics manufacturing plants to control 1,4-dioxane or several other harmful pollutants, according to a new report by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) called “Plastic’s Toxic River.”

Alexandra Shaykevich
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October 31, 2024

America’s first 'gas to liquids' plant could produce fuel in North Dakota

The the North Dakota Public Service Commission recently approved a siting permit for a Canadian company called Cerilon to build a gas-to-liquids plant in Trenton, about 10 minutes from the Montana border in a shale formation with some of the most productive oil and gas fields in the country. Gas-to-liquids technology chemically separates the components of natural gas into liquid fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel that are usually made from petroleum. The idea has been around for nearly a century – but large-scale applications in the U.S. have faced significant delays or cancellations, in part because of economics.

Courtney Bernhardt
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October 24, 2024

Chronic failures in Texas’ management of oil & gas wells raise alarms about the state’s request to run carbon capture

With billions of dollars in incentives on the line, companies across the U.S. are planning wells intended to permanently dispose of carbon dioxide, or CO₂. In most states, the Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for permitting these wells. However, the EPA has handed over that authority to three states -- North Dakota, Wyoming, and Louisiana. Texas now wants to join that list. Critics question whether the state's oil and gas regulator is fit for the job and competent enough to handle a major expansion of its authority into a new area of growth.

Brendan Gibbons
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October 10, 2024

In deep-red Texas, neighbors fight gas power plant next door – one of scores proposed across U.S.

Sandow Lakes Energy’s proposed plant is one of scores of new natural gas-fired power plants planned across the U.S., with the surge driven by cheap gas from hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling and compounded by increased demand from artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency computer centers. In Texas alone there are currently over 150 proposed projects to build new or expand existing gas-fired power plants, according to Environmental Integrity Project research based on data from state and federal agencies. The increased burning of fossil fuels – instead of using clean energy, like solar or wind – to satisfy this growing hunger for electricity threatens U.S. climate goals.

Ari Phillips
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October 3, 2024

Despite history of pollution violations, fertilizer plant receives taxpayer subsidies to expand

In late August, the U.S Department of Agriculture awarded AdvanSix Resins and Chemicals, a massive fertilizer and chemical manufacturing plant in Hopewell, Virginia, a nearly $12 million grant to increase its production of the fertilizer ingredient ammonium sulfate. The plant has a long history of environmental violations. Its expansion is part of a national boom in U.S. fertilizer production over the last decade and a half, fueled in part by hydraulic fracturing’s downward pressure on the price of natural gas, which is a primary ingredient in nitrogen fertilizer.

Ari Phillips
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September 19, 2024

Latest version of energy permitting fast-tracking bill has environmental movement balking

In late July, senators Joe Manchin and John Barrasso, who represent two of the U.S.'s biggest fossil-fuel producing states (West Virginia and Wyoming) announced the latest iteration of their long-sought bill that would accelerate the permitting process for energy projects—including LNG plants, electricity transmission lines, clean energy and fossil fuel power plants. Called the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024, the senators said the legislation would, “strengthen American energy security by accelerating the permitting process for critical energy and mineral projects of all types.” But environmental groups criticize the bill for giving away too much to polluting industries and fast-tracking a review process meant to protect public health and the environment.

Brendan Gibbons
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September 12, 2024

The outlook for the oil and gas industry under President Harris vs. President Trump

Under a Democratic administration led by Vice President Kamala Harris, federal climate policy would likely continue down the Biden Administration’s path – which has meant both billions of dollars invested in clean energy while also allowing for record-breaking oil and gas production. By contrast, former President Donald Trump and his allies have vowed to repeal Biden’s clean energy policies, abandon the country’s climate goals, slash regulations, and speed up oil and gas permitting and leasing. In short, “drill, baby, drill!” as Trump frequently proclaims on the campaign trail.

Brendan Gibbons
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August 15, 2024

Texas program that subsidizes fossil-fuel electricity turbo-charges 72 power plant applications

The state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC) received the applications for loans under the Texas Energy Fund Program, the agency announced in late July. Following widespread power outages during a winter storm in 2021, Texas voters in November 2023 approved the low-interest loan program proposed by the Texas Legislature in an effort to increase generation capacity and avoid blackouts. However, many environmentalists question whether new gas generators are the right answer because they contribute to climate change, and some consumer advocates and energy analysts say it will not address the need to modernize the Texas grid to prevent more outages.

Brendan Gibbons
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August 1, 2024

Environmental Integrity Project launches updated Oil & Gas Watch database and news site

The Oil & Gas Watch database and news site are being re-launched today (Aug. 1) with new features to make it easier for users to track oil and gas developments in local areas and gather national data on the growing industry. The database features a new “alerts” function to highlight new projects, updates, and public hearings. It also has new search tools; the projected greenhouse gas and related health impacts of projects; new maps; and sharable summary pages for industries. We also redesigned the Oil & Gas Watch News site and email newsletter. We are hosting a free virtual webinar at 1 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 21 to explain how to use the new database.

Dante Mack
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July 25, 2024

Cancer-causing benzene emissions are rising at the Dow Chemical Orange plant in East Texas. Why?

Dow Chemical's facility in Orange County, Texas, has the highest levels of carcinogenic benzene air pollution measured at its perimeter among U.S. petrochemical facilities reporting to the EPA, according to the most recent available data. Benzene is a colorless, flammable gas with a sweet odor that is among the most potent cancer-causing byproducts of oil and gas operations. The EPA requires monitoring for benzene along the fencelines of all U.S. oil refineries and a smaller subset of chemical plants. While concentrations at many refineries have gone down, benzene levels at the Dow Orange plant remain stubbornly high and even reached concentrations more than three times higher than short-term safety thresholds and 33 times higher than a standard for chronic exposure.

Griffin Bird
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July 11, 2024

Most hydrogen plants proposed near disadvantaged communities

At a time when the federal government is offering billions in subsidies to encourage hydrogen as an alternative fuel, U.S. companies have proposed at least 24 projects to build new plants to manufacture hydrogen out of natural gas. Public records show that about 90 percent of these projects are in or near low-income neighborhoods. The construction of these hydrogen plants in disadvantaged communities poses an environmental justice problem because they release not only greenhouse gases, but also air pollutants like particulate matter that threaten the health of local people.

Brendan Gibbons
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June 27, 2024

Dominion LNG storage site sparks fierce opposition in rural North Carolina

Dominion Energy, a Virginia-based company that owns a natural gas utility in North Carolina, has been clearing away trees, leveling land, and blasting rock as it prepares to build a facility that will store liquified natural gas (LNG) in two massive tanks. The proposed Moriah Energy Center is one of several new natural gas storage projects planned across the U.S. Nationwide, the number of LNG storage facilities has increased about 42 percent since 2010, from 122 to 173, according to federal data. North Carolina regulators recently scheduled a public hearing on the facility's draft air permit for Aug. 1.

LNG
Louisa Markow
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June 20, 2024

Corpus Christi, Texas, is ground zero for CO₂ storage buildout in oil & gas region

In January 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded $16.4 million to the Port of Corpus Christi to explore carbon capture, use, and storage within the region and facilitate connections between CO₂ emitters and companies that use or store CO₂. The Port’s project is one of 33 across the U.S. that will get funding under the federal Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise Initiative, or CarbonSAFE. The 2023 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also includes a combined $3.5 billion to accelerate the deployment of several regional direct air capture hubs that can suck CO₂ directly out of the atmosphere.

Brendan Gibbons
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June 6, 2024

Company’s plans for 690-mile natural gas pipeline would affect thousands of landowners in Texas, Louisiana

With plans for the pipeline to begin operating in 2028, Houston-based Moss Lake Partners is already surveying a 300-foot-wide corridor along the pipeline’s route from west of Odessa, Texas, in the oil-and gas-producing region of the Permian Basin, to Lake Charles, Louisiana. The current route would cross 3,473 tracts of land, according to company filings. The DeLa Express is the latest in a wave of new pipelines transporting gas out of West Texas. The pipeline is one of 35 pending pipeline projects nationwide that are intended to supply gas to liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals for export.

Natural Gas Liquids
Paul MacGillis-Falcon
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May 30, 2024

As LNG industry booms, salt caverns converted into massive underground gas storage facilities

Companies are proposing to build or expand three large underground natural gas storage facilities in salt caverns along the Gulf Coast to supply a rapidly-growing LNG industry. The increased storage space is also needed, developers argue, for gas generators being used to back up the expanded use of wind and solar power. One side effect of storing gas underground in salt caverns is the leakage of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas. These storage projects are also occasionally the sites of explosions and other accidents.

Ari Phillips
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May 2, 2024

Pipeline supplying new PA plastics plant charged with criminal cover up of spills

Pennsylvania's Attorney General charged Shell Pipeline with 13 criminal charges for violating Pennsylvania’s Clean Streams Law during construction of the 45-mile Falcon Pipeline in western Pennsylvania. The pipeline transports natural gas liquid in the form of ethane from drilling sites in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania to the Shell Polymers Monaca petrochemical plant, where it is processed into plastic. An investigation revealed that Shell allegedly failed to notify state officials about multiple problems, including when drilling mud or fluid was lost underground and came to the surface where it could contaminate waterbodies.

Brendan Gibbons
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April 4, 2024

A new EPA rule is meant to prevent chemical disasters, but safety advocates say loopholes remain

The U.S. experiences a chemical disaster on average once every two days, including at least 45 so far in 2024, according to the nonprofit Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters. However, a new safety rule the Biden administration recently released is meant to avoid such catastrophes. Advocates also say EPA should have done more, such as required air monitoring at the fence lines of major facilities and adding ammonium nitrate, an explosive material used in fertilizer, to the hazardous chemical list.

Brendan Gibbons
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March 27, 2024

Thousands of abandoned wells in Louisiana threaten to leak carbon dioxide from storage projects

Louisiana is one of the hotspots in the U.S. for sequestration projects that trap carbon dioxide (CO2) underground to protect the climate. Companies are planning 58 storage wells at 24 sites across the state. However, experts say a century of oil and gas drilling has left thousands of pathways for CO2 to squeeze its way back out into the atmosphere, potentially eroding any climate benefits and creating a safety threat for nearby residents in the event of a massive rupture or leak. Two recent reports examine the threat from the more than 186,000 abandoned oil and gas wells in Louisiana.

Ari Phillips
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March 14, 2024

EPA’s new rule will slash planet-warming methane emissions from oil and gas industry, but it could be stronger

According to the EPA, the final rule will avoid an estimated 58 million tons of methane emissions from 2024 to 2038. That’s nearly 80 percent less than projected methane emissions without the rule. But the EPA could have been stronger in requiring oil and gas flares to destroy 98 percent of emissions, rather than the 95 percent destruction rate included in the final rule. It also also failed to require relatively low-cost monitoring needed to make sure that flares are burning cleanly and efficiently.

Brendan Gibbons
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March 6, 2024

World’s largest ammonia complex would make fertilizer from natural gas in West Virginia coalfields

The world’s largest nitrogen fertilizer plant, which would make ammonia out of natural gas, could be headed for a former coal mining site in rural West Virginia. TransGas Systems, a New York-based company, is seeking an air quality permit for a facility in Mingo County with six ammonia manufacturing units capable of producing up to 6,000 metric tons per day – a total of more than 13 million metric tons per year. The proposed plant is part of a wave of new and expanding fertilizer factories being built across the country.

Brendan Gibbons
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February 28, 2024

New York is suing Pepsi over oil- and gas-based plastic pollution

When staff from the environmental protection bureau of the New York Attorney General’s office decided to use their authority to address oil- and gas-based-based plastic waste on the Buffalo River, they never intended to go after Pepsi, specifically. But after scientists with the office inventoried piles of trash that volunteers had pulled from the river in western New York, they found that Pepsi’s products made up 17 percent of the plastic waste they found. The lawsuit is the first in the U.S. involving a state suing a company over plastic pollution.

Brendan Gibbons
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February 22, 2024

As Mountain Valley Pipeline races to completion, construction leaves muddy mess in Virginia waterways

As construction crews rush to complete the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia, advocates are calling on state and federal authorities to stop work on the project, citing evidence that the company has again caused erosion that polluted springs and waterways with sediment. One recent example includes a spring in Giles County, west of Roanoke, that began flowing with muddy water after the company's construction work nearby.

Brendan Gibbons
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February 6, 2024

Biden’s LNG pause won’t slow the flow of U.S. natural gas abroad

The Biden Administration's decision to temporarily halt a review of new liquified natural gas (LNG) export permits will do little in the short term to stop the U.S.'s export boom. It will not block exports from the seven LNG terminals currently exporting from the U.S., nor the 16 projects that have already been authorized or are under construction—including 12 new terminals and four major expansions at existing plants.

Ari Phillips
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January 25, 2024

Biden Administration proposes climate guidelines for billions going into hydrogen power

In an effort to nudge the growing hydrogen industry in a climate-friendly direction, the U.S. Treasury Department recently released proposed rules for clean hydrogen subsidies included in the Inflation Reduction Act. The guidelines, which cover the distribution of tens of billions of dollars of tax credits, surprised many with their commitment to hydrogen produced with clean energy, not fossil fuels. So far, only two of seven hydrogen “hubs” approved by the administration use only renewable energy, with a majority using natural gas.

Brendan Gibbons
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January 18, 2024

The U.S. dominated the global oil and gas industry in 2023 despite pledges about clean energy

Overall, 2023 was a year of opposing trends in the U.S. oil and gas industry under a Biden Administration that both launched unprecedented policies to speed the transition to cleaner energy and also opened the door for record-setting fossil fuel production. Last year, the country became the world’s largest producer of oil and maintained its status as the top producer of natural gas, while also becoming the world’s largest gas exporter.

Ari Phillips
/
January 11, 2024

New Mexico wants to recycle fracking wastewater for clean energy. Who stands to gain?

Last month, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced a “first-of-its-kind strategic water supply” program that would invest $500 million in treating produced water, an extremely salty byproduct of oil and gas extraction that can include toxic fracking chemicals, oil droplets, sand, rock fragments, and other gunk picked up along the way. Water experts and environmentalists wonder if the enterprise will do much to address the state’s water woes, or if it will primarily provide more government support for fossil fuel production that is worsening global warming.

Brendan Gibbons
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January 5, 2024

LNG terminal opens in Puerto Rico without required federal approval

A New York-based company under fire from local groups in Puerto Rico after building a liquid natural gas (LNG) import facility in San Juan Bay without obtaining authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The LNG terminal also makes the territory more dependent on natural gas, even though Puerto Rico has passed legislation urging a move to 100 percent renewable power by 2050. Recent federal studies show renewables would be more cost-effective and reliable than continuing to shore up existing fossil fuel-fired power plants.

Preet Bains
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December 19, 2023

Report shows oil and gas companies are rushing to establish taxpayer-subsidized carbon storage projects with little monitoring

A new report by the Environmental Integrity Project shows that federal authorities fail to independently verify that “captured” carbon actually stays underground after companies receive their taxpayer subsidies. The analysis of 21 carbon capture monitoring, reporting, and verification plans approved so far by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shows that the agency allows fossil fuel companies to write their own rules and plans, does not require specific monitoring strategies or technologies, and requires no third-party verification of data self-reported by companies.

Brendan Gibbons
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December 7, 2023

Biden Administration proposes to allow disposal of carbon waste beneath national forests

The Biden Administration’s U.S. Forest Service recently proposed a regulatory change related to carbon capture and sequestration, a technology meant to remove or keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Critics of the proposal say that the Forest Service would be granting fossil fuel and carbon disposal companies access to public property for decades, possibly forever, in support of a technology that has not been proven on a large scale and which some call a false solution.

Brendan Gibbons
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December 1, 2023

Houston smog worst in 12 years, hitting Latino, Black and lower-income neighborhoods hardest

Air monitoring data show that Houston’s air quality violated health-based standards on 55 days in 2023, more than any other year since 2011. Scorching temperatures combined with emissions, in part from vehicles, oil refineries, chemical plants, and other sources, triggered a rise in ozone across the region. Although smoggy air affects almost everyone, Houston air monitoring data show that Latino and Black neighborhoods and low-income communities were hit the hardest.

Brendan Gibbons
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November 1, 2023

Texas voters to decide whether to funnel $10 billion in taxpayer money to natural gas power plants

Next week, Texas voters will decide whether to amend the state’s constitution to provide $10 billion in taxpayer money to build more natural gas-fired power plants – a new subsidy for fossil fuels in a state that already gets most of its electricity from natural gas. The measure on the ballot on Tuesday, known as Proposition 7, would create a “Texas energy fund” that would be used to provide grants and low-interest loans to companies building natural gas plants. Critics say the program would create a never-ending flow of taxpayer money to the natural gas industry.

Alexandra Shaykevich
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October 18, 2023

World’s largest fertilizer factory plans major expansion, despite record of pollution and chemical accidents

The Donaldsonville Nitrogen Complex in southeastern Louisiana is the largest fertilizer plant in the world. It is also the state’s largest source of greenhouse gases and toxic air and water pollution. The plant is responsible for 185 accidental releases of chemicals since 2006 into a neighborhood that is three quarters Black or Latino. Despite the harm to the local community, CF Industries is planning a major expansion.

Brendan Gibbons
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October 12, 2023

Oil & gas companies and investors placing big bets on federally-subsidized carbon capture projects

The world’s largest energy financiers – including oil and gas majors like ExxonMobil and Chevron – are investing billions of dollars in technology intended to capture carbon dioxide. Many supporters of carbon capture and storage see the technology as a path to lessen the climate impact of major industries and to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from major companies whose shareholders are pushing them towards carbon neutrality. But it remains unclear how many of these projects will become a reality or work.

Brendan Gibbons
/
October 4, 2023

Startup of Texas plastics plant by ExxonMobil and Saudi Arabia followed by wave of air and water pollution violations

Nearly two years after one of the largest plastics plants ever built in the U.S. began operations north of Corpus Christi, Texas, some residents here say they have seen none of the promised benefits from the plant, which is jointly owned by ExxonMobil and the Saudi Arabian government. However, neighbors have seen the Gulf Coast Growth Ventures plant consume vast amounts of water in a drought-stricken region, suck up a half billion dollars in local tax breaks, and commit 63 air and water pollution violations, according to state records.

Ari Phillips
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September 27, 2023

Chinese ammonia plant in Louisiana could receive U.S. taxpayer subsidies

Louisiana's Ascension Parish, located along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, is becoming a focal point of the fast-growing, federally-subsidized carbon capture industry. One proposed plant that would manufacture ammonia from natural gas and inject its waste underground is being developed by a partnership majority owned by the Chinese government.

Brendan Gibbons
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September 21, 2023

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.

Vincent Bregman
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September 6, 2023

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.

Lottie Mitchell
/
August 29, 2023

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.

Alexandra Shaykevich
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August 22, 2023

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.

Brendan Gibbons
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August 15, 2023

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.

Brendan Gibbons
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July 12, 2023

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.

Brendan Gibbons
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June 28, 2023

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.

Tom Pelton
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June 21, 2023

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.

Brendan Gibbons
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June 8, 2023

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.

Brendan Gibbons
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April 19, 2023

Texas lawmakers aim to exempt oil & gas projects from school property taxes, but not clean energy

Texas legislators are considering a bill that would give fossil fuel companies – but not clean energy – huge breaks on the property taxes they pay to local school districts, narrowing a previous tax incentive program for energy projects that expired last year. Under the old program, called Chapter 313, almost three quarters of the $12.3 billion in tax benefits went to manufacturing projects, including for the oil and gas and petrochemical industry, while 26 percent went to clean energy projects.

Alexandra Shaykevich
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April 5, 2023

American households could be left in the cold as gas exports skyrocket

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry is growing faster than ever. Three new projects to build or expand liquefaction capacity were announced during the first three months of 2023 alone, along with major financial milestones reached in March on another two projects. That’s on top of the 27 new or expanding LNG terminals already in the pipeline. If all these projects materialize, they would triple the sector’s liquefaction capacity to more than four times the amount that Americans used in 2022 to run gas stoves, heat and cool their homes, warm their water, and run other gas-fueled appliances.

Brendan Gibbons
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March 28, 2023

West Texas home to most repeat violators detailed in illegal pollution report

An Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) report issued March 23 reveals that 17 out of the 20 worst repeat offenders in the state for air pollution released during industrial accidents or “upsets” are in the Permian Basin of West Texas, the world’s most prolific oil-producing region. Of the 17 Permian Basin sites with the worst chronic emissions, only seven of them faced fines over the six-year period studied in the EIP report.

Brendan Gibbons
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February 21, 2023

Ozone drifting into small-town New Mexico from Texas oil & gas industry

A new analysis by Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) shows that when air quality monitors in Carlsbad show spikes in pollution, it’s often because the wind is blowing in from Texas. The monitors record levels of ozone, a key component of smog that’s linked to chronic conditions such as asthma and heart disease. Texas does not have any official monitors on its side of the Permian Basin, despite having a much larger population in harm’s way.

Ari Phillips
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February 14, 2023

The other big fossil fuel project the Biden Administration is pushing in Alaska

A controversial and much-discussed Alaska drilling proposal known as the Willow Project isn't the only energy project in the state with potentially serious consequences. The Biden Administration is also backing a controversial 870-mile natural gas pipeline that would deliver 3.9 billion cubic feet of gas per day from Alaska’s North Slope to a southern liquefaction and export terminal. From there, the gas would be shipped primarily to Japan and elsewhere in Asia.

Ari Phillips
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January 24, 2023

Direct air carbon capture sets up shop in the oilfields of Texas

A subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum – one of the largest oil producers in the country – is taking advantage of billions of federal decarbonization dollars up for grabs under new government subsidy programs to invest in climate tech solutions to global warming. Meanwhile, Occidental will still be pumping out oil and gas responsible for heating the atmosphere. It is simultaneously profiting from both fossil fuel extraction and carbon capture.

Brendan Gibbons
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January 17, 2023

What House Republicans have planned for the oil and gas industry

After a messy confirmation process for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republican leadership signaled a plan to introduce bills that would boost oil and gas production and speed the permitting process for pipelines and other large facilities. In an event last week with the American Petroleum Institute, House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers said legislators are working on a “package of bills” that would “secure American energy.”

Brendan Gibbons
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January 11, 2023

Stalemate at FERC could stall Biden clean energy plan, landowner rights reform

Willie Phillips, who’s served on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission since December 2021, will become the new acting chair of the commission, or FERC, an independent agency that regulates the interstate transmission of gas and electricity. Advocates say FERC need reforms to strengthen landowner rights and accelerate a shift away from fossil fuels. However, Phillips' nomination and the departure of former chair Richard Glick mean the commission is split 2-2 among Republicans and Democrats.

Brendan Gibbons
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December 14, 2022

Mitsubishi seeks tens of millions in Louisiana tax breaks for largest plastics plant of its kind

The more than $1 billion methyl methacrylate plant, which could receive up to $168 million over 10 years in local property tax breaks alone, would emit hundreds of tons per year of air pollution in an area where cancer risk from toxic air pollution is already three times the U.S. average. The company has said its decision to build in Geismar, Louisiana, was influenced by the availability of natural gas, a key ingredient in the manufacturing process.

Brendan Gibbons
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November 30, 2022

Why the EPA says new oil and gas regulations will cut methane emissions 87%

Earlier this month, the U.S. announced sweeping new restrictions on methane from the oil and gas sector. The proposal would require equipment upgrades, better monitoring at all well sites, and a program that would allow third parties to report 'super emitters.' The agency says the proposal will yield $3.1 to $3.2 billion per year in net economic benefits because of avoided climate disruption and is accepting comments on the proposals until Feb. 23, 2023.

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