Oil and Gas Watch

February 26, 2026

Growing use of secrecy agreements between developers and local governments troubles advocates of open government

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.

November 15, 2022

Chemical plants in TX, LA exceed EPA action level for cancer-causing benzene

Air pollution monitors outside a pair of chemical manufacturing plants in Louisiana and Texas suggest that they have been releasing benzene, a known carcinogen, into nearby communities above an EPA action level that is supposed to trigger investigations and cleanup. Monitors at ExxonMobil's chemical plant in Beaumont, Texas, and a Shell Chemical facility in Norco, Louisiana, show levels significantly higher than the EPA's action level for benzene. More than 32,000 people live within three miles of these facilities.

Brendan Gibbons

November 8, 2022

How a woman of faith stopped the world's biggest plastics factory

Despite having little money and struggling with the death of close friends to illness in a part of Louisiana known as “Cancer Alley,” Sharon Lavigne has fought tenaciously against Formosa Plastics' “Sunshine Project.” In September, a Louisiana judge ruled in her favor in one of the biggest David vs. Goliath court battles in American history. A woman of strong Catholic faith, Lavigne says the decision to fight wasn’t hers, but God’s.

Lottie Mitchell

November 1, 2022

Drilling for digital dollars? Oil and gas sites catching on with crypto miners

Wyoming legislators earlier this year passed a law to provide tax incentives for cryptocurrency mines next to oil and gas drilling sites. Texas and other states may follow. The idea is for the centers to burn waste gas to supply their vast energy needs, instead of venting or flaring climate-warming methane. But critics warn that tax breaks for cryptocurrency mining at drilling sites would provide a financial incentive for drilling in more marginally productive areas. This would mean yet more drilling and more air and water pollution and more methane leaks.

Courtney Bernhardt

October 25, 2022

Is hydrogen fuel worse for the climate than coal? It all depends on how it’s made

Hydrogen fuel can be produced by using only water as a basic ingredient and energy from wind and solar. In theory, when it is made this way, hydrogen is a clean fuel -- although a very expensive one -- that emits no carbon dioxide when burned, only water. But most hydrogen fuel today is not so clean, because it is produced using natural gas or coal. Companies are planning to build or expand at least 29 of these kinds of fossil-fuel hydrogen plants across the U.S., and one recent study concluded this kind of fuel is worse for the climate than coal or oil.

October 18, 2022

Pipeline routes now available on Oil and Gas Watch database

There are over 3 million miles of pipelines for natural gas, oil, and other petroleum products in the U.S., and over 7,000 miles of new pipelines are planned or under construction. In recent years, community groups, driven by concerns about oil spills, water pollution, explosions, and eminent domain, have challenged several pipeline projects. To make public information about pipeline projects more accessible, Oil & Gas Watch is now providing maps and public records about proposed pipeline routes in our online database.