PublishedMay 21, 2019TopicShare/RepublishThe fight against a Texas pipeline just got a little more challenging. On Monday, the that makes interfering with pipelines and other oil and gas infrastructure a crime punishable by up to a year in prison and $10,000 in fines. And just the “intent to impair or interrupt” operations could still cost you a $4,000 fine and a year behind bars.The new legislation raises the risk for landowners hoping to block construction of Kinder Morgan’s $2 billion, 430-mile natural gas pipeline from West Texas’ Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast. The proposed project...…PublishedMay 21, 2019TopicShare/RepublishThe fight against a Texas pipeline just got a little more challenging. On Monday, the that makes interfering with pipelines and other oil and gas infrastructure a crime punishable by up to a year in prison and $10,000 in fines. And just the “intent to impair or interrupt” operations could still cost you a $4,000 fine and a year behind bars.The new legislation raises the risk for landowners hoping to block construction of Kinder Morgan’s $2 billion, 430-mile natural gas pipeline from West Texas’ Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast. The proposed project...WW…

PublishedApr 12, 2021TopicShare/RepublishRepublican efforts to stall President Joe Biden’s climate agenda are slowly beginning to take shape. In March, a coalition of 12 Republican state attorneys general challenging Biden’s executive order creating a working group to establish a metric for the “.” Led by Missouri’s attorney general, Eric Schmitt, the lawsuit charges that the order is an “enormous expansion of federal regulatory power” and that such cost calculations are “inherently speculative, policy-laden, and indeterminate” and should instead be undertaken by Congress. In a similar...…PublishedApr 12, 2021TopicShare/RepublishRepublican efforts to stall President Joe Biden’s climate agenda are slowly beginning to take shape. In March, a coalition of 12 Republican state attorneys general challenging Biden’s executive order creating a working group to establish a metric for the “.” Led by Missouri’s attorney general, Eric Schmitt, the lawsuit charges that the order is an “enormous expansion of federal regulatory power” and that such cost calculations are “inherently speculative, policy-laden, and indeterminate” and should instead be undertaken by Congress. In a similar...WW…

PublishedApr 05, 2021TopicShare/RepublishThis story is part of a collaboration with , with support by the .The fracking boom in the Permian Basin — which straddles West Texas and southeastern New Mexico — largely coincided with Republican control of much of New Mexico’s state government. Many of those elected to office in the early years of the shale rush promptly began dismantling barriers to extracting the most oil and gas at the cheapest price: Soon after winning the governorship in 2010, Republican Susana Martinez in the environment department into positions where they had little...…PublishedApr 05, 2021TopicShare/RepublishThis story is part of a collaboration with , with support by the .The fracking boom in the Permian Basin — which straddles West Texas and southeastern New Mexico — largely coincided with Republican control of much of New Mexico’s state government. Many of those elected to office in the early years of the shale rush promptly began dismantling barriers to extracting the most oil and gas at the cheapest price: Soon after winning the governorship in 2010, Republican Susana Martinez in the environment department into positions where they had little...WW…

PublishedOct 26, 2021TopicShare/RepublishChevron has long dominated oil production in Lost Hills, a massive fossil fuel reserve in Central California that was accidentally discovered by water drillers more than a century ago. The company routinely pumps hundreds of thousands of gallons of water mixed with a special concoction of chemicals into the ground at high pressure to shake up shale deposits and release oil and gas. The process — called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — produces every day. But it also leaves the company saddled with millions of gallons of wastewater laced with toxic...…PublishedOct 26, 2021TopicShare/RepublishChevron has long dominated oil production in Lost Hills, a massive fossil fuel reserve in Central California that was accidentally discovered by water drillers more than a century ago. The company routinely pumps hundreds of thousands of gallons of water mixed with a special concoction of chemicals into the ground at high pressure to shake up shale deposits and release oil and gas. The process — called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — produces every day. But it also leaves the company saddled with millions of gallons of wastewater laced with toxic...WW…

This story is . Sign up for their daily newsletter, .Unauthorized pollution has become the norm in Texas. Every single day last year, at least one industrial facility in the state emitted more toxic pollutants than it’s allowed to under state and federal laws. In the Midland region, home to the country’s most productive oil and gas basin, fossil fuel operators emitted more than 61 million pounds of pollutants above permitted levels last year. In the Houston area,  lasted more than three months and emitted 15 million pounds of pollution, blanketing the city in smoke and forcing...…This story is . Sign up for their daily newsletter, .Unauthorized pollution has become the norm in Texas. Every single day last year, at least one industrial facility in the state emitted more toxic pollutants than it’s allowed to under state and federal laws. In the Midland region, home to the country’s most productive oil and gas basin, fossil fuel operators emitted more than 61 million pounds of pollutants above permitted levels last year. In the Houston area,  lasted more than three months and emitted 15 million pounds of pollution, blanketing the city in smoke and forcing...WW…

PublishedOct 14, 2020TopicShare/RepublishUnauthorized pollution has become the norm in Texas. Every single day last year, at least one industrial facility in the state emitted more toxic pollutants than it’s allowed to under state and federal laws. In the Midland region, home to the country’s most productive oil and gas basin, fossil fuel operators emitted more than 61 million pounds of pollutants above permitted levels last year. In the Houston area, lasted more than three months and emitted 15 million pounds of pollution, blanketing the city in smoke and forcing residents to shelter...…PublishedOct 14, 2020TopicShare/RepublishUnauthorized pollution has become the norm in Texas. Every single day last year, at least one industrial facility in the state emitted more toxic pollutants than it’s allowed to under state and federal laws. In the Midland region, home to the country’s most productive oil and gas basin, fossil fuel operators emitted more than 61 million pounds of pollutants above permitted levels last year. In the Houston area, lasted more than three months and emitted 15 million pounds of pollution, blanketing the city in smoke and forcing residents to shelter...WW…

PublishedMar 01, 2021TopicShare/RepublishLaws are only as good as their enforcement. During his four years in office, former President Donald Trump’s appointees to the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, decimated the agency’s ability to catch and penalize polluters breaking environmental rules. As a result of this and longer-term trends, facility inspections and civil cases filed against polluting operations like chemical plants and wastewater treatment centers dropped to their last year.The Biden administration is now attempting to reverse course. While the new president’s flurry of...…PublishedMar 01, 2021TopicShare/RepublishLaws are only as good as their enforcement. During his four years in office, former President Donald Trump’s appointees to the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, decimated the agency’s ability to catch and penalize polluters breaking environmental rules. As a result of this and longer-term trends, facility inspections and civil cases filed against polluting operations like chemical plants and wastewater treatment centers dropped to their last year.The Biden administration is now attempting to reverse course. While the new president’s flurry of...WW…