Energy & Fuel

"U.S. environmental groups fighting fossil-fuel development made headlines years ago with public demonstrations against big pipeline projects including the Dakota Access and the Keystone XL - only to be steamrolled by President Donald Trump’s executive orders to approve them. Now the so-called ‘keep it in the ground’ movement has a new strategy to slow Trump’s pro-oil agenda: Burying the administration in formal written protests and lawsuits challenging nearly every oil and gas lease it plans on public land."

"A week after the West Virginia Supreme Court unanimously upheld the property rights of landowners battling one natural gas giant, the same court tossed out a challenge filed by another group of landowners against a different natural gas company."

"An investigation into an explosion at an Oklahoma natural gas drilling rig that killed five workers last year faulted inadequate training and equipment and called for new regulations, the U.S. safety regulator said on Wednesday."

"Britain would bring its net production of greenhouse gases to zero by 2050 under legislation that Prime Minister Theresa May proposed on Wednesday, a move that would make it the first of the world’s major economic powers to commit to ending its contribution to global warming."

"Two oil tankers came under attack on Thursday in the Gulf of Oman, forcing their crews to abandon ship and setting at least one vessel ablaze, a month after four tankers were damaged in the same waterway, a vital thoroughfare for much of the world’s oil products."

"A coalition of environmental groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Interior Department’s rollbacks of safety measures put in place by the Obama administration in the aftermath of the fatal 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill."

"The main U.S. refining industry association said on Monday it sued to block the Trump administration’s effort to expand sales of higher ethanol blends of gasoline, arguing the move exceeded the administration’s authority."

"A panel of federal judges last night tossed a lower court ruling that had frozen progress on the Keystone XL pipeline, giving a green light for construction to begin on the embattled project."

"EPA says it can issue federal permits for projects, including pipelines, regardless of whether states raise questions about impacts to climate change or air pollution."

"A last-minute push by automakers appears unlikely to sway the Trump administration from abandoning President Barack Obama’s signature climate policy to improve mileage standards for cars and light trucks, two government officials said Friday."