Series:Series:Penny Aucoin and her husband Carl Dee George have worried about living near oil and gas producing sites in New Mexico’s Permian Basin since the sites began springing up near their home six years ago. They have wondered what effect the industrial pollution might have on them and their son and daughter — even more so now with the -19 pandemic — but with no money to pick up and relocate, they have remained in their home.  Their worries escalated early in the morning on January 21, when a pipe transporting oil field wastewater at a Energy...…Series:Series:Penny Aucoin and her husband Carl Dee George have worried about living near oil and gas producing sites in New Mexico’s Permian Basin since the sites began springing up near their home six years ago. They have wondered what effect the industrial pollution might have on them and their son and daughter — even more so now with the -19 pandemic — but with no money to pick up and relocate, they have remained in their home.  Their worries escalated early in the morning on January 21, when a pipe transporting oil field wastewater at a Energy...WW…

Get DeSmog News and AlertsScience denial in America didn’t begin with the Trump administration, but under the leadership of President Trump, it has blossomed. From the climate crisis to the , this rejection of scientific authority has become a hallmark of and cultural signal among many in conservative circles. This phenomenon has been on recent display in Louisiana, where a clear anti-mask sentiment has emerged in the streets and online even as -19 cases rise.“Are you a masker or a free breather?” Pastor Tony Spell asked the crowd while speaking from the bed of a pickup truck...…Get DeSmog News and AlertsScience denial in America didn’t begin with the Trump administration, but under the leadership of President Trump, it has blossomed. From the climate crisis to the , this rejection of scientific authority has become a hallmark of and cultural signal among many in conservative circles. This phenomenon has been on recent display in Louisiana, where a clear anti-mask sentiment has emerged in the streets and online even as -19 cases rise.“Are you a masker or a free breather?” Pastor Tony Spell asked the crowd while speaking from the bed of a pickup truck...WW…

Girl’s tragic death in oil industry explosion haunts her familyMaxwell Smith is on a mission to make sure no one loses a child the way he lost his 14-year-old daughter, Zalee Gail Day-Smith. Zalee, a vivacious high school freshman who loved singing,  when oil tanks exploded near her home in Beauregard, Louisiana. “Her body was thrown 200 feet in the air,” Smith told me when I went to visit the family a month after the accident. Zalee’s body was found across the street from the site of the blast in the Bear Field oil field, just north of Lake Charles....…Girl’s tragic death in oil industry explosion haunts her familyMaxwell Smith is on a mission to make sure no one loses a child the way he lost his 14-year-old daughter, Zalee Gail Day-Smith. Zalee, a vivacious high school freshman who loved singing,  when oil tanks exploded near her home in Beauregard, Louisiana. “Her body was thrown 200 feet in the air,” Smith told me when I went to visit the family a month after the accident. Zalee’s body was found across the street from the site of the blast in the Bear Field oil field, just north of Lake Charles....WW…