Oil and Gas Watch

Texas power demand fuels flood of gas plants and air pollution

Spurred by data centers and population growth, demand for electricity in Texas is expected to nearly double by 2034. That increase in demand is leading to a wave of 130 new gas-fired power plant projects, according to a recent inventory and analysis by the Environmental Integrity Project. If built, they could emit greenhouse gases equivalent to those from 26.8 million cars and trucks driven for one year or 30 coal-fired power plants.

Alexandra Shaykevich

January 9, 2025

Manufacturers of ammonia plan a boom in the U.S. Will it bust under Trump?

The United States is on the cusp of quadrupling its ammonia production capacity in the next five years—a move that could come with serious risks to human health and the environment. Ammonia, a chemical that is usually manufactured from natural gas, is used for synthetic fertilizers and explosives. Proponents now want to use it as a shipping fuel and to make hydrogen for clean energy. As of December 2024, 38 proposed ammonia projects across the U.S. could increase annual ammonia production capacity by over 60 million metric tons per year by 2030. That would result in a near quadrupling of the amount of ammonia production capacity in the U.S. today, from 21 million metric tons to 81 million metric tons.

Brendan Gibbons

January 2, 2025

The top Oil & Gas Watch News stories of 2024, according to readers

Oil & Gas Watch News has covered a huge variety of stories over the past year, with stories taking us from Puerto Rico to North Carolina and detailing topics as diverse as carbon capture and storage, fertilizer made from natural gas, and the EPA’s efforts to crack down on climate-polluting laughing gas. However, of all the topics covered in our 44 articles published this year, a few rose to the top as fan favorites – according to you, our readers. Here we have ranked the stories that drew the most readers to the site.

December 19, 2024

Why climate-skeptical Republicans may protect billions in taxpayer funding for a climate program

Funded by billions of dollars in new taxpayer subsidies approved by the Biden Administration, more than 160 projects have been proposed across the U.S. to capture carbon dioxide pollution from industry and bury it underground as a strategy to address climate change. But Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, is returning to the White House, and climate-skeptical Republicans are taking control of Congress. The politics within the Republican Party and the economic interests of the oil and gas industry make Congress unlikely to eliminate subsidies for carbon capture. More than 90 percent of taxpayer-supported carbon capture projects in recent years have been run by fossil fuel companies.

Brendan Gibbons

December 5, 2024

The huge new oil project in Alaska that is escaping national attention

Last year, environmentalists criticized the Biden Administration for approving a large oil drilling project on public land in the Alaskan Arctic called the Willow project. However, a similar petroleum project has drawn little attention. About 30 miles east of Willow, Australian energy company Santos, Spanish company Repsol, and ASRC Energy, a subsidiary of the Alaska Native-owned Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC), has received approvals and is currently building the first phase of the Pikka Project, an effort to produce hundreds of millions of barrels of oil over the next three decades. The project is located entirely on land owned by the State of Alaska and the ASRC.

Brendan Gibbons

November 21, 2024

Trump’s pick for Interior Secretary likely to increase drilling on federal public land 

To run the U.S. Department of the Interior and supervise drilling on federal land, President-elect Donald Trump last week selected Doug Burgum, a billionaire former software executive and real estate developer who has served as North Dakota’s governor since 2016. If confirmed by the Senate, Burgum would oversee the federal agency most in charge of oil and gas leasing and development in federal coastal waters and on federal lands. Project 2025, often seen as a playbook for the next Trump Administration, calls for a rollback of Biden’s efforts to reduce leasing on federal lands, as well as to “conduct offshore oil and natural gas leases to the maximum extent possible.” 