Inside Energy (https://insideenergy.org/tag/oil-and-gas/page/3/)
An Anadarko oil tank battery exploded in flames on Thursday afternoon, killing one worker and injuring three more, just 3.5 miles from the site of a deadly home explosion in Firestone, Colo., that killed two last month. The state’s oil and gas industry is under increasing scrutiny from state and federal regulators.
A fatal home explosion in northern Colorado is prompting a lot of questions in the state about how oil and gas wells are regulated, and how close to old wells new homes should be built.
Oil and gas regulations vary tremendously state to state and a new study finds that inconsistency means it is difficult to come up with a comprehensive picture of the environmental impact of what’s known as unconventional drilling.
Freshman Congressman Ryan Zinke from Montana is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Interior Secretary. The Interior Department oversees one fifth of federal lands in this country, including national parks from Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon. The nomination was met by cheers and boos.
Donald Trump promised sweeping reforms to the energy industry during the campaign. He promised to bring back coal jobs, boost domestic oil and gas production, while repealing climate change regulations and gutting the Environmental Protection Agency. Essentially his plan aims at reversing much of what the Obama administration delivered on energy and climate in the last eight years. Now that Trump is the president-elect, how much of that will he actually be able to do?
For weeks this spring, students and teachers at the school in tiny Midwest, Wyoming reported strange smells and headaches. Then, in May, the school shut down after health officials detected dangerous levels of potentially toxic gases. But for months, no one could answer the questions: What were the gases? And how did they get into the school?
Fossil fuel companies have a history of backing Republican candidates. But this year’s unusual presidential campaign appears to be having a strange ripple effect on political giving — at least from the oil and gas industry.
Researchers are starting to draw a straight line between ozone and oil and gas development. A recent study out of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration found that 17 percent of new ozone on an average summer day in Colorado’s front range comes from oil and gas emissions.
Fights past and present over environmental issues have compelled Native Americans from tribes across the country to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux in its battle to defeat the Dakota Access oil pipeline. This gathering of nations, meanwhile, could mark a turning point for tribes as they seek greater say in what happens to their land.
