• Air

Nearly 250,000 Students At Risk Due to Proximity To Active Oil and Gas Wells

• air pollution
• cancer
• fracking
• oil and gas
• toxic chemicals

A Newsy analysis released last week found that more than 600 U.S. schools are located within 500 feet of an active oil or gas well, and more than 1.4 million people across the U.S. live within the 500-foot danger zone. 

Why This Matters:  Kids should not have to go to school near active oil and gas wells with toxic air emissions that put them at higher risk for cancer and respiratory problems.  Research from the Colorado School of Public Health has found that people living within 500 feet of an oil or gas facility have a cancer risk that is 8 times higher than the EPA’s accepted threshold.

• Energy

Corn Producers Get A Boost From Trump Proposal to Increase Ethanol Production

• corn
• ethanol
• farmers
• oil and gas

After starting a trade war with China that hurt midwestern farmers, and giving “small” refineries a free pass on requirements to produce ethanol, the Trump Administration last Friday announced new rules to increase the mandates for ethanol in order to increase the sale of the biofuel beyond the current requirement of 15 billion gallons annually.

Why This Matters:  With so many special interests pressuring the President, it is hard to please everyone. The American Petroleum Institute (API), the lobby for the oil industry, and American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, which represents oil refineries, announced that they would challenge the policy.

• Energy

Secretary Perry and Rudy Giuliani Entangled In Ukraine Gas Company Scheme

• LNG
• oil and gas
• Ukraine

The Associated Press reported yesterday that Rudy Guiliani was pushing on behalf of clients to get a friendlier management team of U.S. businessmen installed at the top of the ‘”massive” Ukrainian state-owned gas company, Naftogaz.  Coincidentally, Energy Secretary Rick Perry was also lobbying the company to change its top management, which is why he asked President Trump to make the infamous call with President Zelensky.

Why This Matters:  The Trump administration’s corrupt relationship with the oil and gas industry is laid bare by this scandal — it explains why it has been so hard to take meaningful steps to move away from fossil fuels and address the climate crisis. 

• Land

Trump Administration Takes Aim at the Bureau of Land Management

• Bureau of Land Management
• drilling
• mining
• Monuments
• oil and gas

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is a small federal agency but it manages 250 million acres of land around the country, much of it in the West, and recently the Trump Administration announced that it wants to move most of its employees from Washington, D.C. to Colorado and other Western states as part of […]

• Climate Change

Secretary Pompeo’s Arctic Council Climate Denial

• Arctic
• Arctic Council
• climate change
• fishing
• oil and gas
• shipping

At a meeting of Foreign Ministers from all the Arctic Nations held Monday and Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refused to sign a previously negotiated declaration of support by the nations for their joint strategy and cooperation plan in this key region because it involved working to address climate change impacts in the region.  […]

• People

Earth Week Exclusive Interview with Carol Browner, Conservation Champion

• clean air
• clean power plan
• climate change
• Gulf Oil Spill
• oil and gas
• Paris Agreement
• pollution

Carol Browner has had a long career in public service on environmental conservation.  She was the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 1993-2001 and served as President Obama’s Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, and also served as a member of the Gulf Oil Spill Commission. ODP:  The […]