Oil and Gas Watch

Brendan Gibbons

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.

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.

Brendan Gibbons

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.

Brendan Gibbons

Trump officials mislead on fertilizer price relief in effort to ram through Louisiana ammonia plant

With farmers suffering from high global fertilizer prices due to the war in Iran, Trump Administration officials held a press conference May 19 unveiling their plan to speed up permitting for a Louisiana facility they said would help provide economic relief for the American agricultural community. The only problem? The majority of the ammonia manufactured from natural gas at the proposed Blue Point Complex near Donaldsonville will not be used to make fertilizer, but rather to ship to overseas customers and as a fuel for a power plant and a steel factory, according to corporate disclosures and announcements.

Massive New Mexico data center tries to ‘greenwash’ environmental impact with fuel cell proposal

One major AI data center battle is currently playing out in the small border town of Santa Teresa, in Dona Ana County of New Mexico, where road construction and ground clearing at the massive Project Jupiter AI data center began last fall. Developed by BorderPlex Digital Assets, the complex will be powered by a self-contained power system separate from the state’s main electricity grid used by the public.

Brendan Gibbons

Backed by $500 million in state funds, company plans 350-mile natural gas pipeline across North Dakota

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is holding meetings across the state this week and the first week of June for the Bakken East Pipeline, a new 350-mile pipeline that would move gas from the Bakken Shale formation in the western part of the state to eastern North Dakota, ending near Fargo. The pipeline, planned by WBI Energy, is eligible for up to $500 million in taxpayer-subsidized financing over 10 years