Oil and Gas Watch

Brendan Gibbons

Bills that target the public's right to monitor air pollution are popping up in state legislatures

In 2024, the Louisiana legislature passed a bill that effectively bans community groups from using their own air monitoring to warn residents about pollution or publicly advocate for cleanup action. Industry advocates are pushing similar bills to restrict air pollution monitoring around the country, with Kentucky passing a similar law this year. Legislators in Ohio and West Virginia have also considered bills that would restrict the use of data from local groups doing their own independent air monitoring.

Alexandra Shaykevich

Ten long-delayed LNG export terminals could lose approvals under new policy

In a policy statement published April 21, the Department of Energy said that it will no longer consider applications for extensions to the current deadline of seven years between when a company receives government permits to export LNG and when exports must actually begin, or risk losing their permit approvals.

Brendan Gibbons

Ten years after West Texas explosion, booming fertilizer industry poses risks to environment and public safety

At a time when the nitrogen fertilizer industry is growing rapidly across the U.S., federal records show little has been done over the last decade to prevent disasters like the 2013 explosion at a fertilizer storage facility in West, Texas, that killed 15 people. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board and others have urged the EPA to add ammonium nitrate to the list of highly hazardous chemicals that would require better disaster planning, but EPA has refused. In the 10 years since the Texas explosion, ammonium nitrate has been involved in at least 106 spills or accidental releases across the U.S., seven fires, five evacuations, and two deaths.

Brendan Gibbons

Texas lawmakers aim to exempt oil & gas projects from school property taxes, but not clean energy

Texas legislators are considering a bill that would give fossil fuel companies – but not clean energy – huge breaks on the property taxes they pay to local school districts, narrowing a previous tax incentive program for energy projects that expired last year. Under the old program, called Chapter 313, almost three quarters of the $12.3 billion in tax benefits went to manufacturing projects, including for the oil and gas and petrochemical industry, while 26 percent went to clean energy projects.

Brendan Gibbons

Permitting reform could still rise from the ashes of 'dead on arrival' House GOP energy package

With Democrats in control of the Senate and White House, most of the provisions in the energy package passed by the Republican-controlled U.S. House won’t make it into law anytime soon. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats have signaled that they could be open to a narrower discussion on “permitting reform” to streamline the process of approving major energy projects such as pipelines, fuel export terminals, and electrical transmission lines.

Alexandra Shaykevich

American households could be left in the cold as gas exports skyrocket

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry is growing faster than ever. Three new projects to build or expand liquefaction capacity were announced during the first three months of 2023 alone, along with major financial milestones reached in March on another two projects. That’s on top of the 27 new or expanding LNG terminals already in the pipeline. If all these projects materialize, they would triple the sector’s liquefaction capacity to more than four times the amount that Americans used in 2022 to run gas stoves, heat and cool their homes, warm their water, and run other gas-fueled appliances.