Oil and Gas Watch

Brendan Gibbons

Even with Gulf drilling down, Trump Administration weighs expanding drilling to new coasts

The number of oil and gas drilling rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico today is about half of what it was a year ago, with 10 rigs working on June 27, compared to 19 a year earlier. In the face of this slump, the oil and gas industry is lobbying the Trump Administration to expand drilling rights into new coastal areas where it has been banned for years. These include the Atlantic Coast from the Carolinas to Florida, and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, off Florida and Alabama.

Brendan Gibbons

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

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

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

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.

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.