Failures to assess risks to Colorado River and ‘numerous NEPA violations’ in project’s impact analysis highlighted.
Oil
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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.
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What hazardous cargo moves on Colorado railroads? It’s a ‘black box’, even to state regulators
In many Western states, 19th-century laws and deregulation allow chemical- laden trains to roll in obscurity — leaving hazmat teams guessing.
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Utah’s proposed crude oil railway could see an accident every year
Coloradans fight the oil train project, fearing a repeat of East Palestine’s toxic derailment — but in the Colorado River.
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The Biden administration just approved a huge oil project in Alaska
The Willow project threatens local lifeways and wildlife in Nuiqsut, Alaska.
Posted inMarch 1, 2023: Moving Parts
‘Gold in the hills, but not for us’
Scenes from California’s backyard petroculture.
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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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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.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2022: Going Under
Can ravaged economies be healed with a restoration industry?
Cleaning up the West could be as lucrative as wrecking it.
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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.
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Climate game changer? Or fossil fuel giveaway?
A break down of the Inflation Reduction Act.
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Alaska’s Willow Project promises huge amounts of oil — and huge environmental impacts
Residents in nearby Nuiqsut worry that oil and gas development is ‘too fast and too much.’
Posted inAugust 1, 2022: Our Fiery Future
How oil companies endlessly avoid cleanup costs
In Colorado, a sale of 110 low-producing oil wells illustrates a hot potato effect, and how funding remediation eventually comes from the public.