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.

Brendan Gibbons

Texas fishermen worry revived dredging project for bigger oil tankers will harm their catch

Federal and local officials are planning a dredging project along the Texas Gulf Coast that would make more room for larger oil tankers headed for an export terminal in Matagorda Bay. Fishermen and environmental advocates worry the dredging will disturb a decades-old Superfund site contaminated with mercury and destroy hundreds of acres of habitat for shrimp, oysters, and other seafood species. Since the U.S. lifted a ban on exporting crude oil in 2015, companies have built or proposed at least 11 new or expanded oil terminals along the Gulf Coast.

Brendan Gibbons

Biden Administration may spend billions funding 'clean' hydrogen made with fossil fuels

Some hydrogen energy advocates envision a future where factories will split water molecules into clean hydrogen fuel. But half of the proposed hydrogen production sites currently under consideration for $8 billion in federal funding could use fossil fuels to make their hydrogen fuel, raising doubts about how “clean” the fuel would really be.

Biden/McCarthy compromise would approve Mountain Valley Pipeline and limit national environmental reviews

To avoid the possibility of the U.S. defaulting on its debts, President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Sunday endorsed compromise legislation that requires the federal government to issue all permits needed to “expedite” completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The 303-mile natural gas pipeline through West Virginia and Virginia has been stalled by court challenges but is championed by Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) The bill would also limit environmental reviews of major projects like pipelines, dams, and electric transmission lines across the U.S.

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.