Oil and Gas Watch

Brendan Gibbons

December 18, 2025

Taxpayer-subsidized carbon capture is driving a backlash in Louisiana, Texas and other states

Driven by billions in taxpayer subsidies, companies are planning hundreds of projects across the U.S. intended to capture carbon dioxide emissions from industry and pump the pollution underground. The wave of carbon capture, transportation, and storage projects is triggering backlash in the form of lawsuits, grassroots activism, and regulatory changes. States in the Gulf Coast and Midwest have had public debates and court battles over some of these projects.

Data shows Denbury’s carbon pipelines leak more than any other CO₂ pipeline company’s

Denbury is one of the largest companies producing oil though enhanced oil recovery, which uses CO₂ to dislodge oil remnants from nearly depleted stores. The company owns an extensive network of CO₂ pipelines to supply its oil fields. However, data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) shows Denbury is responsible for more CO₂ leakage than any other CO₂ pipeline company. Since 2010, there have been 76 incidents involving CO₂ pipelines reported to PHMSA, collectively releasing nearly 67,000 barrels of CO₂ into the air...

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

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.

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.

Report: Jet biofuel is weighed down by pollution and loopholes

The biofuel industry markets itself as an environmentally-friendly alternative to petroleum-based fuels. But a recent examination of the emissions reports of 226 biofuel plants across the U.S. found that plant-based fuel manufacturers release almost as much hazardous air pollution as oil refineries – and significantly more of some dangerous pollutants, including formaldehyde, a known carcinogen.The industry is growing rapidly, with 32 new or expanded biofuels plants under construction or proposed, about two-thirds of which could make jet fuel from wood or plants.