Oil and Gas Watch

February 26, 2026

Across the U.S., local governments are signing secrecy agreements over data centers, other controversial projects

Developers and local governments across the U.S. that want to avoid public debates with local residents about controversial projects – from data centers to solar farms and petrochemical plants – in recent years have increasingly employed nondisclosure agreements as a tactic to keep things quiet and out of the press until deals are complete, according to observers of the industry. For example, when local elected officials in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, began negotiating to remove an historically Black community beside the Mississippi River for a 17,000-acre industrial complex, the officials signed what amount to gag orders promising to “protect the secrecy” of the project.

Brendan Gibbons

Three Texas oil & gas industry sites that caught fire had long violation records

The three large refinery and petrochemical facilities along the Texas Gulf Coast that caught fire this month had long track records of environmental compliance problems, including a combined 5,469 violations over a decade but few penalties, according to state records. On May 5, a Shell chemical plant near Houston caught fire and burned for days. Ten days later, flames erupted at a Marathon oil refinery south of Houston, burning to death a plant worker. And on May 17, a blaze broke out at a Valero refinery in Corpus Christi. Repeat violations often indicate a pattern of companies not investing in modern equipment and safety measures.

Lottie Mitchell

Biden’s bioplastics move could be a shell game, swapping one polluting plastic for another

President Biden recently issued an executive order with the goal of replacing 90 percent of petroleum-based plastics manufacturing with plastic produced using ingredients like corn or wood. These "bioplastics" do not cause the same environmental harm as fossil fuel plastics, but they do not break down quickly and can persist in the environment. Biden’s order also endorses chemical plastic recycling, which generates huge quantities of toxic waste and hazardous air pollutants.

Brendan Gibbons

Shell chemical plant that burned near Houston had a record of nearly 2,000 violations

Shell Deer Park Chemical, which caught fire over the weekend, has a long track record of environmental violations, including 37 enforcement orders and $1.6 million in penalties. One of these violations was for the release of more than 30,000 pounds of a dangerous carcinogen (1,3-butadiene) from vents and a relief valve over nearly 24 hours in January 2013.

Ammonia fuel sets sail into an ocean of petroleum-based energy

As the demand for low-carbon energy sources grows, "clean" ammonia – referred to by advocates as either green or blue ammonia, depending on how it is produced – is expected to dramatically increase in production. Developers in the U.S. are proposing 15 new ammonia plants, mostly in Texas and Louisiana, to produce ammonia for fuel. Ammonia could be used as a fuel for ships, or to help produce clean-burning hydrogen for industry. But about two thirds of these "clean" ammonia projects are dependent on untested carbon capture technology.

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.