Oil and Gas Watch

Brendan Gibbons

Trump officials mislead on fertilizer price relief in effort to ram through Louisiana ammonia plant

With farmers suffering from high global fertilizer prices due to the war in Iran, Trump Administration officials held a press conference May 19 unveiling their plan to speed up permitting for a Louisiana facility they said would help provide economic relief for the American agricultural community. The only problem? The majority of the ammonia manufactured from natural gas at the proposed Blue Point Complex near Donaldsonville will not be used to make fertilizer, but rather to ship to overseas customers and as a fuel for a power plant and a steel factory, according to corporate disclosures and announcements.

November 14, 2023

Biologist encounters oil-spewing pipe while researching biodiversity in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s not an isolated incident.

A group of researchers was on a boat returning from a biodiversity monitoring outing in the Mississippi Delta’s Barataria Bay just south of New Orleans on Saturday, Oct. 21, when they noticed a unplugged well spewing oil into the bay. They reported the spill. Unfortunately, unplugged or abandoned wells like this are common in the Gulf of Mexico, where the number of abandoned or broken wells exceeds 14,000.

Brendan Gibbons

November 1, 2023

Texas voters to decide whether to funnel $10 billion in taxpayer money to natural gas power plants

Next week, Texas voters will decide whether to amend the state’s constitution to provide $10 billion in taxpayer money to build more natural gas-fired power plants – a new subsidy for fossil fuels in a state that already gets most of its electricity from natural gas. The measure on the ballot on Tuesday, known as Proposition 7, would create a “Texas energy fund” that would be used to provide grants and low-interest loans to companies building natural gas plants. Critics say the program would create a never-ending flow of taxpayer money to the natural gas industry.

October 25, 2023

Major carbon pipeline is cancelled as opposition grows and regulations remain elusive

Carbon dioxide accumulation is a big problem in the atmosphere. But increasingly, pipelines carrying CO2 underground are also raising objections, including from state governments, creating a roadblock to a major Biden Administration climate strategy. South Dakota and North Dakota recently denied permits for carbon pipelines, triggering the cancellation last week of a 1,300-mile carbon pipeline across five Midwestern states. Meanwhile, a dozen Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to President Biden demanding a moratorium on all new carbon pipelines until federal safety regulations are updated.

Alexandra Shaykevich

October 18, 2023

World’s largest fertilizer factory plans major expansion, despite record of pollution and chemical accidents

The Donaldsonville Nitrogen Complex in southeastern Louisiana is the largest fertilizer plant in the world. It is also the state’s largest source of greenhouse gases and toxic air and water pollution. The plant is responsible for 185 accidental releases of chemicals since 2006 into a neighborhood that is three quarters Black or Latino. Despite the harm to the local community, CF Industries is planning a major expansion.

Brendan Gibbons

October 12, 2023

Oil & gas companies and investors placing big bets on federally-subsidized carbon capture projects

The world’s largest energy financiers – including oil and gas majors like ExxonMobil and Chevron – are investing billions of dollars in technology intended to capture carbon dioxide. Many supporters of carbon capture and storage see the technology as a path to lessen the climate impact of major industries and to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from major companies whose shareholders are pushing them towards carbon neutrality. But it remains unclear how many of these projects will become a reality or work.