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.

Brendan Gibbons

February 21, 2023

Ozone drifting into small-town New Mexico from Texas oil & gas industry

A new analysis by Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) shows that when air quality monitors in Carlsbad show spikes in pollution, it’s often because the wind is blowing in from Texas. The monitors record levels of ozone, a key component of smog that’s linked to chronic conditions such as asthma and heart disease. Texas does not have any official monitors on its side of the Permian Basin, despite having a much larger population in harm’s way.

February 14, 2023

The other big fossil fuel project the Biden Administration is pushing in Alaska

A controversial and much-discussed Alaska drilling proposal known as the Willow Project isn't the only energy project in the state with potentially serious consequences. The Biden Administration is also backing a controversial 870-mile natural gas pipeline that would deliver 3.9 billion cubic feet of gas per day from Alaska’s North Slope to a southern liquefaction and export terminal. From there, the gas would be shipped primarily to Japan and elsewhere in Asia.

Sara Brodzinsky

February 7, 2023

New study: Refineries under-reported benzene emissions by as much as 28-fold

Data collected by fenceline benzene monitors suggest that some refineries may have been significantly under-estimating and underreporting their emissions for years. That means neighborhoods downwind could have been facing higher risks of cancer than long thought. New research looks specifically at three refineries – Chevron and LyondellBasell's refineries in the Houston area and a HollyFrontier refinery in Artesia, New Mexico.

February 1, 2023

Report exposes vast amounts of unregulated water pollution from oil refineries

A new report by the Environmental Integrity Project reveals that, across the U.S., 81 refineries discharge a half billion gallons of wastewater a day directly into waterways. That's as much as 712 Olympic swimming pools every 24 hours. The federal Clean Water Act requires EPA to set limits for pollutants from industrial sources and update them at least every five years as treatment technologies improve. But EPA has never set any limits for refinery discharges of many pollutants.

January 24, 2023

Direct air carbon capture sets up shop in the oilfields of Texas

A subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum – one of the largest oil producers in the country – is taking advantage of billions of federal decarbonization dollars up for grabs under new government subsidy programs to invest in climate tech solutions to global warming. Meanwhile, Occidental will still be pumping out oil and gas responsible for heating the atmosphere. It is simultaneously profiting from both fossil fuel extraction and carbon capture.