Oil and Gas Watch

October 1, 2026

Controversial West Virginia chemical plastics ‘recycling’ plant gets permit over local objections

In response to lobbying by the industry, 24 states, including West Virginia, have passed legislation reclassifying chemical plastics "recycling" not as waste incineration but as a kind of manufacturing, which requires less strict environmental standards. The Trump Administration is working to exempt these plants from being subjected to Clean Air Act limits for cancer-causing air pollution.

Brendan Gibbons

New EPA report: Plastics chemical found in drinking water poses elevated cancer risk

1,4-Dioxane is a colorless liquid with a faint sweet odor used as an industrial solvent, ingredient, and byproduct in the production of plastics and consumer products since the 1950s. The chemical is also found in hydraulic fracturing fluid and at plastic plants that produce polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, a common plastic used to make bottles, food packaging, and clothing. The EPA is accepting public comments on its findings on 1,4-Dioxane until Sept. 8, 2023.

Factory near Houston would convert garbage into jet fuel. “Green” energy or trash talk?

In Baytown, east of Houston, Fulcrum Bioenergy plans to build facility that converts landfill trash, including single-use plastic, into jet fuel. The company recently opened a similar plant near Reno, Nevada. Proponents see the idea of using garbage to make jet fuel as an environmental win-win and effective way to decarbonize the aviation industry. However, some environmentalists doubt whether the technology is viable and point to the hundreds of tons of air pollution per year the plant would generate.

Temperatures rise over whether EPA should allow Louisiana to permit carbon waste burial projects

This summer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to rule on a petition by Louisiana for state authority to issue permits for carbon dioxide waste disposal wells that would allow petrochemical companies to capture the climate-warming pollutant from their smokestacks and bury it underground. Encouraged by billions of dollars in public subsidies offered by the Biden Administration, oil and gas companies and other industries are proposing at least 27 carbon capture and sequestration projects in Louisiana, including beneath the Gulf of Mexico.

Brendan Gibbons

The U.S. LNG export boom is spreading to Mexico, creating new environmental threats

Developers are planning six LNG terminals capable of liquefying and exporting natural gas from Mexico, including three planned for highly sensitive areas of the Gulf of California in the country’s northwest. The LNG terminals would rely on U.S. natural gas, mostly from West Texas, and would export most of their gas to Asian countries. The Mexican terminals could compete for customers with 30 new or expanding U.S. LNG terminals either under construction or proposed but not yet built, mostly in the Gulf of Mexico.

EPA report: Houston plastics plant at risk of explosion

In November 2019, a TPC Group plastics chemical plant in Port Neches, Texas, exploded and burned for more than a month, causing evacuations of nearby residents and forcing schools to close. A TPC plastics plant in Houston has some of the same potential problems as caused the Port Neches disaster: dead-end sections of pipe called "dead legs," according to an EPA inspection. A similar explosion at the Houston facility could be even more catastrophic, because 8,000 people live within a mile.