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

December 14, 2022

Mitsubishi seeks tens of millions in Louisiana tax breaks for largest plastics plant of its kind

The more than $1 billion methyl methacrylate plant, which could receive up to $168 million over 10 years in local property tax breaks alone, would emit hundreds of tons per year of air pollution in an area where cancer risk from toxic air pollution is already three times the U.S. average. The company has said its decision to build in Geismar, Louisiana, was influenced by the availability of natural gas, a key ingredient in the manufacturing process.

Alexandra Shaykevich

December 7, 2022

No plastics panacea: chemical recycling causes pollution, promotes waste

Global plastic waste more than doubled from 2000 to 2019 and global plastics production is expected to increase by 40 percent over the next decade, as the fossil fuel industry rushes to build new petrochemical plants that turn fracked gas into plastic. While the public grows increasingly concerned about plastics pollution, the fossil fuel industry and its allies are marketing a false solution: chemical recycling.‍ Despite serious health and safety concerns, states have approved 14 chemical recycling projects across the U.S. since 2016.

Brendan Gibbons

November 30, 2022

Why the EPA says new oil and gas regulations will cut methane emissions 87%

Earlier this month, the U.S. announced sweeping new restrictions on methane from the oil and gas sector. The proposal would require equipment upgrades, better monitoring at all well sites, and a program that would allow third parties to report 'super emitters.' The agency says the proposal will yield $3.1 to $3.2 billion per year in net economic benefits because of avoided climate disruption and is accepting comments on the proposals until Feb. 23, 2023.

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.