oil and gas drilling

June 29, 2017 - President Trump wants to open an area from Delaware to Florida to seismic airgun blasting for offshore oil and gas reserves, a plan that carries risks for coastal communities while benefiting mostly foreign firms. Federal officials are accepting public comments on the proposal through July 6.

January 10, 2017 - Last week the Obama administration denied all pending permits to conduct seismic testing for oil and gas reserves in the Atlantic Ocean, but pro-drilling politicians who don't represent directly affected coastal communities say they'll work to reverse the decision under Trump.

October 14, 2016 - This week an environmental alliance released data showing that the oil industry in Louisiana has more than 30 accidents a week — from offshore platform spills to pipeline leaks that are poisoning the coastal wetlands and marine environment.

September 23, 2016 - The EPA is considering a proposal to allow oil and gas companies to continue to dump wastewater from offshore fracking directly into Gulf waters. The industry dumped more than 76 billion gallons of fracking wastewater into the Gulf in 2014 alone.

June 10, 2016 - A North Carolina-based climate advocacy group filed a complaint this week with the Environmental Protection Agency's Inspector General charging that the EPA is covering up underreporting of the natural gas industry's emissions of methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas.

April 29, 2016 - More than two decades ago, Louisiana created a tax exemption for horizontally drilled oil and gas wells that's still in place — and it's costing the cash-strapped state billions in revenues.

March 18, 2016 - Created to protect oil rig workers after the deadly BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is failing to perform its most basic functions. Meanwhile, offshore rig workers are dying on the job at an alarming rate.

February 18, 2016 - The first presidential primaries in the South get underway this week in South Carolina, a state embroiled in the controversy over expanding offshore oil and gas drilling to the Atlantic. While most of the Republicans support expanded drilling, the Democrats don't want to see it come to the East Coast.

February 9, 2016 - The Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw will use a $48 million grant won in the National Disaster Resilience Competition to relocate away from the rising Gulf of Mexico — and hopes to serve as a model for others facing catastrophic sea-level rise. Other grant winners include Tennessee, Virginia and New Orleans.

January 27, 2016 - As efforts intensify to keep fossil fuel reserves in the ground in order to stave off the worst effects of climate change, anti-drilling activists are planning to protest outside a March auction in New Orleans of more than 42 million acres of U.S. waters from Louisiana to Florida for new oil and gas development.