Citizens of Pavillion, Wyoming, started to notice a bad taste and smell in their water. Methanol, a toxic chemical, was found in their water from fracking waste. 2L staffer Gracie Sandlin discusses how fracking companies are not required to disclose the chemical injected into the ground due to trade secrets, but is that for the best? Sandlin advocates that these chemicals should not be trade secrets, discusses what another state is doing, and hopes Wyoming will soon follow.
Pipe Down! Keystone XL Cancellation a Win for Climate Activists—But for How long?
While President Biden’s recent executive order regarding the Keystone Pipeline may seem like a major win for its opponents, the battle is far from over. In this piece, 3L staffer Taygan Mullins discusses the impact of this decision and asserts that this may only be a temporary victory for those supporting the order.
Bailing Out Big Oil: An Economic and Moral Dilemma
While low gas prices are usually looked at gratefully, COVID-19 has changed societal interactions and diminished the need for oil as quarantining mitigates the need to drive. However, as oil production continues around the world and is met with depleted demand, big oil companies are falling on hard times leading them to seek assistance in the form of a government bailout.
Fair Treatment: Regulating Forced Pooling in the Modern Age of Resource Excavation
The Newest Trial to Keystone XL Pipeline: Tribes Bring New Suit Against Federal Government
Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Continues Construction After DC Circuit Decision
Due to the catastrophic failures of all natural gas transportation methods, such as spillages and harmful chemicals escaping barrels, people are wary of new pipelines. Accordingly, there has been a recent, and large, controversy regarding the installation of the new pipeline, Atlantic Sunrise. Atlantic Sunrise runs through ten counties of Pennsylvania and will hopefully provide natural gas to southern states such as Alabama. The near $3 billion pipeline is threatened by activists who are protesting every step of construction, but the DC Circuit Court has refused to block the pipeline by dissolving an administrative stay on construction of the pipeline.
Colorado Residents Plead: Stop Fracking with Our Homes
In a world where it was previously thought that one owned all that was above and all that was below his land, it seems as if Colorado is taking a big step to ensuring that this is no longer true. An obscure Colorado law allows whole neighborhoods to be forced into leasing the minerals beneath their properties as long as one person in the area consents. This concept, known as forced pooling, is instrumental in developing oil and gas resources in Denver’s rapidly growing suburbs