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.

September 27, 2023

Chinese ammonia plant in Louisiana could receive U.S. taxpayer subsidies

Louisiana's Ascension Parish, located along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, is becoming a focal point of the fast-growing, federally-subsidized carbon capture industry. One proposed plant that would manufacture ammonia from natural gas and inject its waste underground is being developed by a partnership majority owned by the Chinese government.

Brendan Gibbons

September 21, 2023

Biden Administration offers drillers 67 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico – but industry sues over protections for whales

On Wednesday, the Biden Administration plans to offer leases for sale to oil and gas companies allowing drilling on 67 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico. But the oil and gas industry is suing because the Biden Administration plans to block drilling on a small portion of the underwater acres to protect a threatened species of whale: the Rice's whale.

Vincent Bregman

September 6, 2023

First-ever EPA data show gas processing plants emit thousands of pounds of carcinogens per year

Before natural gas can be routed through the pipelines that fuel power plants, homes, and businesses, it must be processed at a gas processing plant to remove contaminants or to separate raw materials used to make chemicals or plastics. According to data available for the first time this year, 258 gas processing plants reported releasing a combined total of 3.2 million pounds of toxic air pollutants in 2022, including benzene and formaldehyde, both carcinogens.

Lottie Mitchell

August 29, 2023

Despite Biden climate promises, oil production on federal lands is rising

After a campaign pledge of "no more drilling on federal lands," the Biden Administration approved 8,072 drilling permits on public lands from the month after the president’s inauguration through July 2023, nearly as many as the 8,293 under former President Donald Trump for a comparable period. The total amount of oil produced with these permits is higher so far under President Biden than Trump.

Alexandra Shaykevich

August 22, 2023

What causes long-delayed 'zombie' projects? The market, not government permit reviews

At least seven oil and gas mega-projects across the U.S. have delayed construction as a result of bankruptcy, financing delays, or market forces. All of these projects -- including an LNG terminal and two fertilizer plants -- were issued permits to allow construction more than seven years ago but have failed to move forward. The reality that often it's economics -- not slow government reviews of environmental permits -- that creates long-stalled "zombie" projects undercuts arguments that Congress needs permitting reform to fast track permit approvals.