While Congress does nothing, Western state lawmakers pass a flurry of consequential and/or crazy — bills.
Natural Gas
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Oil industry profits don’t pay for cleanup
A failure of regulation has allowed industry to avoid the true cost of cleaning up its unplugged wells.
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New Mexico pushes back on Big Oil
New bills in the legislature could curb industry excesses.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2024: January 2024
I married a cookstove scientist
My reluctant journey to ditching our gas stove.
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Outrage, disinformation and threats rise up in Wyoming around a BLM land plan
Is there a new Sagebrush Rebellion flaring in the Cowboy State?
Posted inSeptember 1, 2023: Food Justice
The long tail of toxic emissions on the Navajo Nation
Communities contend with ongoing air quality issues tied to gas and oil wells.
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Private equity gets into oil and gas
A new report warns of bankruptcies and abandoned wells on Western public land.
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New public-land drilling rules would overhaul the Western oil industry
The potential new rules would hike the amount companies must pay in order to drill, in addition to other changes.
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California will need $21.5 billion to clean up its oil sites. Who’s going to pay for it?
As industry transitions away from fossil fuels, its profits will fall behind remediation costs.
Posted inApril 1, 2023: The Path Forward
Why electrify?
The push to evict natural gas appliances from buildings, explained.
Posted inApril 1, 2023: The Path Forward
The natural gas pushback
Local communities want to electrify, but gas interests have other ideas.
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Colorado regulators come down hard on troubled oil company
K.P. Kauffman said that penalties could result in a large bankruptcy, leaving well cleanup to the state.
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The state of the land: Biden’s mixed conservation record
The president has riled up just about everyone with his public-land policies. Maybe that’s a good thing.
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5 new state bills that could shape the future of energy in Alaska
The state’s legislative session has just begun. Here are the bills climate activists are watching.
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New Mexico’s new pollution rules leave oil and gas operators to police themselves
Lack of enforcement allows industry to keep emitting greenhouse gases, evidence shows.
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Colorado works on an oil and gas well cleanup guarantee, but doubts loom
The state’s financial assurance process called ‘the strongest in the nation.’
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Could Alaska help lessen international dependence on Russian oil?
A proposed LNG project spanning the state would export natural gas, but could harm land, wildlife & subsistence harvests.
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The nonprofits cleaning up the oil and gas industry’s ‘dirty little secret’
These organizations are tackling the vast problem of orphaned wells.
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Trump tried to open Alaska lands to resource development — what will Biden do?
The Bureau of Land Management is taking comments on whether it should open about 28 million acres to oil, gas and mineral extraction.
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Alaska environmentalists disappointed by Inflation Reduction Act compromise
The bill includes historic investments in climate programs — and expands oil and gas leasing in Alaska’s Cook Inlet.