Oil and Gas Watch

Brendan Gibbons

Billions in Venezuelan oil revenue draw Congressional scrutiny as Iran war reshapes U.S. energy strategy

Three months after U.S. special forces extracted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from Caracas in a nighttime raid, the Trump Administration’s handling of billions of dollars in Venezuelan oil revenue has become the subject of Congressional scrutiny. Questions are being raised as the administration scrambles to unlock Venezuelan crude to offset a fuel crisis driven by the U.S. attack on Iran. The administration last month lifted sanctions on Venezuela’s oil put in place in January 2019, during Trump’s first term.

Alexandra Shaykevich

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

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.

October 17, 2024

Leaks at Illinois carbon injection project cast a shadow on the future of taxpayer-subsidized carbon capture

An ethanol plant in central Illinois has stopped injecting carbon dioxide (CO2) into the ground after a potential leak was discovered on the property for the second time this year. The problems at the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) plant raise questions about the safety of about 150 other carbon capture wells proposed across the U.S., most with taxpayer funding.

Brendan Gibbons

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.

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.