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Published: Thursday, May 20, 2021 Texas Capitol in Austin following a winter storm. Photo credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images Documents from the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which is based in Austin, show how early state leaders were dealing with gas issues in February. The Texas Capitol is pictured in this Feb. 19 photo. Joe Raedle/Getty Images Texas' electricity leaders were deeply focused on natural gas shortages days before blackouts crippled the state in February and plunged the state's power industry into chaos, according to documents obtained by E&E News. A phone log shows more t...

Advocates for the Texas natural gas industry have spent much of the 11 weeks since February’s deadly power blackouts downplaying the sector’s culpability in the crisis and working to stop lawmakers from requiring winterization of far-flung wells and pipelines. But new data suggest failures by natural gas producers and suppliers to keep the commodity flowing might have triggered as much as a fifth of the freeze-related power outages near the peak of the calamity. What's not up for debate is that statewide production of natural gas — a major source of fuel for electricity generation �...

Fossil Fuel Companies’ Tough Sell: Oil and Gas Sites With Costly Environmental Clean-up The total cost of decommission offshore oil wells around the world is expected to be over $100 billion by 2030. Analysis Image: The Birds! Platform Holly, offshore from Goleta. Credit: Glenn Beltz (CC BY 2.0) Last year was rough for major oil companies. BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and Total suffered a combined $77 billion in losses for 2020. And now, as Reuters reports, many are trying to sell-off “dozens of oil and gas fields and refineries worth more than $110 billion to curb both their balloonin...

Why are taxpayers are bailing out the worst-performing oil companies?

, at least 12,000 wells are poised to be abandoned just in the next four years. The number could be still higher—and more of the cleanup cost shifted to taxpayers—if Texas continues to lead the nation in oil and gas bankruptcies, a trend started by the long-term collapse of shale drilling and accelerated by the pandemic. “Texas is known for having one of the better plugging programs, but we’re still so far behind,” Palacios said. The main reason is that bonds are far too low. In Texas, bonds can cost as little as $2,500 per well, even though the actual median cost to plug a well and...