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.

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.

Brendan Gibbons

West Texas home to most repeat violators detailed in illegal pollution report

An Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) report issued March 23 reveals that 17 out of the 20 worst repeat offenders in the state for air pollution released during industrial accidents or “upsets” are in the Permian Basin of West Texas, the world’s most prolific oil-producing region. Of the 17 Permian Basin sites with the worst chronic emissions, only seven of them faced fines over the six-year period studied in the EIP report.

Opening of new plastics plant brings glowing orange clouds and repeated pollution violations

Residents of a western Pennsylvania county learned that Shell's new plastics plant had begun operating from the orange glowing clouds in the night sky, illuminated by blazing flares. Community concerns about the strange lights and sounds from the new plant, which transforms natural gas into tiny pellets used to make soda bottles and other single-use plastic goods, turned out to be based on more than just appearances. State records show 34 malfunctions at the new Shell Monaca plant, and 14 violations, including for exceeding permitted levels of smog-forming air pollutants.

After East Palestine, the slow-moving train wreck of petrochemical pollution deserves more attention nationally

Following the Norfolk Southern train derailment and chemical fire in East Palestine, Ohio, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz blasted President Biden for not visiting the scene of the accident. Cruz claimed that “Democrats don’t give a damn about East Palestine." He failed to mention a similar chemical catastrophe outside his own city, Houston. On Nov. 27, 2019, a series of explosions ripped through the Texas Petrochemicals Port Neches plant, spewing carcinogens into the air and requiring the evacuation of thousands of people. Cruz never demanded that then-President Trump make an appearance in Texas to show his concern for petrochemical pollution, which is a serious national issue.

Wave of new oil export terminals looms over Gulf Coast

The approval off the Sea Port Oil Terminal 35 miles off the coast of Texas marks the beginning of what could be a wave of five massive new deepwater oil export terminals along the Gulf Coast that service oil tankers over 1,000 feet in length. In the eight years since Congress lifted a long-time ban on crude oil exports, the U.S. has gone from barely exporting any fossil fuels to offloading millions of barrels of oil per day.