Notes From Underground: A Spill of Opportunity By Adam Arnold Inevitability Returns to Southern California A pipeline rupture off the coast of Southern California was detected on the evening of Friday, October 1 and led to over 100,000 gallons of oil being released into the environment before owner Amplify Energy closed off the pipeline the next day. The spill has indeed amplified calls to end [...]
Falcon Pipeline drawing heat, accusations of misconduct This article features Government Accountability Project and was originally published here. HARRISON COUNTY – Shell’s Falcon Pipeline, which began construction in 2019 places Harrison County in the center of more action, as if the fracking industry wasn’t enough. The pipeline begins specifically around Scio and Cadiz where it [...]
Notes from Underground: The Frack Dance This blog, along with our previous post regarding pipelines, provides an impression of key topics at the intersection of environmental protection and accountability at the start of the Biden administration. The new United States administration has already shown an inclination to go beyond merely undoing the deregulation of the [...]
Notes from Underground: A New Landscape The change of US administration is set to significantly impact federal environmental policy as well as government transparency, both of which were particularly problematic during the Trump administration. This post provides a view of the state of affairs for pipelines under the Biden administration, as it ties to [...]
Notes from Underground: The Pipeline Pipeline (Part 2) This series assesses the current state of the pipeline industry, with consideration of future prospects for pipeline development and the potential downsides they represent. Part 1 provided an overview of the role of public opinion in the development of infrastructure projects. Part 2 will look at the courts and whistleblowers as [...]
Notes from Underground: The Pipeline Pipeline (Part 1) While recent court decisions have stopped or slowed construction on major pipelines, the industry appears to have no intention of capitulating. In a collaborative four-part series between Government Accountability Project’s Environment, Energy & Climate Change (EE&CC) program and Food Integrity Campaign (FIC), we will look at the present and future of pipeline production in [...]
Part 2: Coal, Fracking, Pruitt, and NEPA "We know that it is impossible for humans to flourish without clean air, land, and water. We also know that a strong, market-driven economy is essential to protecting these resources." President Donald Trump, April 22, 2018 For Earth Day 2018, President Trump declared in effect that environmental regulation [...]
Part 1: Leaks, Spills, & Explosions, On Land & Offshore The agenda of the current administration puts fossil fuel revenue above health, safety, and science. Tax breaks and public-land giveaways are just parts of this administration’s efforts to increase production of and dependence on coal, oil, and natural gas. Indiscriminate deregulation threatens the safety of [...]
Fights over pipeline construction are not new, but they have become central of late to the debate between safe, sustainable energy and extractive, polluting, fossil-fuel reliance. While many factors contribute to the increased focus on pipelines, chief among them is the boom in natural gas production in the US, brought about via developments in fracking [...]
The fossil fuel cancer comes out of its brief remission After a moment of optimism, during which it seemed the United States might finally begin planning for a future free of fossil fuel dependence, pipelines are back. Since the November election, the pendulum of public benefit versus private gain has swung sharply in the wrong [...]