Category: Energy

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A “No Pipeline” sticker adorns a sign near where the Atlantic Coast Pipeline would have crossed a mountain near Wintergreen Resort, just below Reids Gap in Nelson County, Virginia.

New Dominion

How a grassroots groundswell, legal challenges and political and technological sea changes combined to force Virginia’s most powerful company to abandon the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, pivot from natural gas and onto a cleaner energy path. “Hung up in the mountains” Tom Hadwin took a sip

With leading positions in top U.S. oil and natural gas plays, we continue to generate the most value from our operations through capital efficiencies, reduced expenses and strategic production.

Is Natural Gas a Fossil Fuel with a Great Future Behind It?

As the pandemic sends shock waves through the energy industry, investors are rethinking their bets on America’s decade-long natural gas boom.  On June 28th, Chesapeake Energy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It was a long-expected announcement. The hydraulic fracturing pioneer – launched by a young

“A view of the cleared right-of-way for the Constitution Pipeline on the property of the Holleran family of New Milford, PA. Tree-fellers authorized by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission used chain-saws to destroy 90 percent of the family’s maple trees that produced syrup for their business, North Harford Maple.”

The Limits of Disturbance

With its permitting authority over natural gas infrastructure, the little-known Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has sweeping power over individual citizens’ property and our collective climate trajectory. Critics say that reforming its pipeline review process should be high on President Joe Biden’s agenda.

This is the view of Richmond, California from San Francisco side of the bay after accident at Chevron. Photo credit: Chemical Safety Board.

Living on the Fence Line: A History of Chemical Threats to Black Communities

West Virginia State University, a 125-year-old historically black university, rested for decades on the fence line of a pesticide manufacturer, a stone’s throw from tanks holding lethal amounts of one of the world’s most dangerous and infamous chemicals, methyl isocyanate.The chemical, known as MIC, was

The Hayes Lemmerz aluminum wheel manufacturing plant fire and explosion was one of three combustible dust industrial accidents that killed 14 workers in a single year. Photo credit: Chemical Safety Board.

Death by Dust

Tammy Miser got the call late at night from a family friend. Her brother Shawn may have been injured in a work accident and it might be serious. Shawn Boone was a maintenance man at the Hayes Lemmerz plant in Huntington, Ind., a manufacturer of

BOOM: North America’s Explosive Oil-by-Rail Problem

U.S. regulators knew they had to act fast. A train hauling 2 million gallons of crude oil from North Dakota had exploded in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, killing 47 people. Now they had to assure Americans a similar disaster wouldn’t happen south of the border, where the U.S. oil boom is sending

Chinese Demand Stokes U.S. Coal Battle

TRINIDAD, Colorado – When the New Elk mine reopened amid windblown prairies last winter, it attracted little attention. But the mine – a long shaft boring through some of the world’s most valuable coal – strikes at the heart of a growing debate about the future of American coal.

Is Wyoming Ruining Water Supplies to Produce Natural Gas?

PAVILLION, WY—Jeff and Rhonda Locker’s water changed abruptly one day in the mid-1990s while Rhonda was doing the laundry. A Denver-based gas company was working over an old well in back of their house. Suddenly, the wash water turned black. “It happened just like that,”

The Environmental Toll of Gas Development

BLANCO, New Mexico—Chris Velasquez sees the impacts of gas development in the San Juan Basin of northern New Mexico through the eyes of a rancher. He and his dad ran cattle, until recently, on a grazing allotment called the Rosa, rolling high desert lands punctuated

A Son Confronts Oil Poverty in the Niger Delta

“As much money as they take out of here, this place should look like New York,” Ken Wiwa says, gesturing at the passing landscape as his car, chauffeured by his father’s driver, Sonny, speeds southeast from Port Harcourt towards Ogoniland along the area’s only major