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.

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.

Brendan Gibbons

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.