Environmental Integrity Project

Environmental Integrity Podcast
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Environmental Integrity Project

We discuss important environmental issues in the news and investigative reports by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project.

  1. Oil Veteran is Skeptical of Republican Plans to Produce More Oil by Fast-Tracking Permit Approvals

    JAN 16

    Oil Veteran is Skeptical of Republican Plans to Produce More Oil by Fast-Tracking Permit Approvals

    When President Trump takes office, one of the first things he is expected to do is to accelerate the approval of permits to drill for oil and gas on federal land. But this is likely to have little to no impact on the production of fuel from federal lands. Why? Because there are already more than 6,000 approved drilling permits and millions of acres of leases owned by oil and gas companies on public lands that are not being used. We explore this curious phenomenon with an oil industry veteran: Mark Finley, former chief U.S. economist with BP who is now an independent expert and fellow in energy and global oil at Rice University’s Baker Institute.

    26 min
  2. Billions of Dollars in Taxpayer Subsidies Support Carbon Capture. Is it a Massive Waste?

    12/18/2024

    Billions of Dollars in Taxpayer Subsidies Support Carbon Capture. Is it a Massive Waste?

    One of President Biden’s signature achievements to combat climate change has been the approval of billions of dollars in federal subsidies to encourage carbon capture and storage. It sounds good: capturing carbon dioxide from industry, then piping it underground so it can’t heat the planet. But most of these projects don’t really help the climate. They provide taxpayer money to oil and gas companies, who use captured carbon to force more oil and gas out of the ground. We interview an expert on carbon capture, MIT Professor Charles Harvey, who was the scientific advisor to a pioneering carbon capture company who discovered, firsthand, that the technology was not economically viable. We ask Professor Harvey: What would happen if the incoming president, Donald Trump, a climate change denier, followed the advice of his allies at Project 2025 and killed all federal funding for carbon capture?

    24 min
  3. Why Drilling For Oil in the Alaskan Arctic is So Controversial

    12/05/2024

    Why Drilling For Oil in the Alaskan Arctic is So Controversial

    Last year, environmentalists criticized the Biden Administration’s decision to approve the Willow Project, a proposal by ConocoPhillips to produce up to 600 million barrels of oil on the North Slope over 30 years. Not far away, Australian company Santos is planning a similar proposal called the Pikka Project, which would produce about 400 million barrels over 30 years. That project has gotten much less attention than Willow in the Lower 48. Philip Wight, an environmental historian at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, explains the context behind these projects and explains why companies are still drilling in the Alaskan Arctic, even as oil production has boomed in other states. He also details how climate change is affecting the industry and Alaska as a whole, including causing some bizarre issues for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which delivers oil from the North Slope to refineries and export terminals.

    32 min
  4. Debunking Trump’s Claims That “Drill Baby Drill” Will Lower Consumer Prices

    11/13/2024

    Debunking Trump’s Claims That “Drill Baby Drill” Will Lower Consumer Prices

    President Trump won election this month in part by convincing voters that he could bring down consumer prices for groceries, gasoline, and other products by expanding oil production. We interview an expert on the oil industry and climate change, Professor Robert Kaufmann of Boston University, who debunks this claim. Petroleum is traded on a global market, Kaufmann explains, and so one president of any one nation cannot unilaterally bring down oil and gasoline prices – because other countries, like Saudi Arabia, could cut back production even if U.S. companies boosted oil production. Kaufmann also argues that President Biden’s signature legislation on the climate, the Inflation Reduction Act, could survive Trump’s regulatory rollbacks and attacks on green programs because so many of the clean energy projects the law funds are located in Republican districts, whose representatives won’t want to lose local funding and jobs.

    26 min
  5. What will the Supreme Court’s Rulings Mean for the Environment?

    07/23/2024

    What will the Supreme Court’s Rulings Mean for the Environment?

    The U.S. Supreme Court has issued several earth-shaking decisions recently – including one that overturned decades of precedent about the authority of the EPA to make decisions about pollution. What will the court’s rejection of the 40-year-old “Chevron deference” mean for organizations fighting for clean air and clean water? And what was the Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council case that started the precedent of deferring to federal agencies on questions left unclear by the law? We interview David Bookbinder, the Environmental Integrity Project’s new director of law and policy and a veteran environmental attorney who formerly served as the Sierra Club’s chief climate counsel. Bookbinder initiated and managed a landmark case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Massachusetts v. EPA, which confirmed the power of the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases under the federal Clean Air Act.

    22 min
  6. North Carolina farming couple fight back against massive LNG storage site

    06/27/2024

    North Carolina farming couple fight back against massive LNG storage site

    Jeff Hammarquist and Oci Canadas moved to Person County, North Carolina, last year, seeking fertile land to grow vegetables and raise livestock. But after learning about plans for a new Dominion Energy liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage site currently under construction nearby, they joined their neighbors in an effort to push back against the facility.

    14 min
  7. Abandoned oil and gas wells pose threat to carbon storage projects

    03/27/2024

    Abandoned oil and gas wells pose threat to carbon storage projects

    Louisiana is one of the hotspots in the U.S. for sequestration projects that trap carbon dioxide (CO2) underground to protect the climate. Companies are planning 58 storage wells at 24 sites across the state. However, experts say a century of oil and gas drilling has left thousands of pathways for CO2 to squeeze its way back out into the atmosphere, potentially eroding any climate benefits and creating a safety threat for nearby residents in the event of a massive rupture or leak. Two recent reports examine the threat from the more than 186,000 abandoned oil and gas wells in Louisiana.

    15 min
  8. Investigation reveals billions in taxpayer subsidies to U.S. plastics manufacturers

    03/14/2024

    Investigation reveals billions in taxpayer subsidies to U.S. plastics manufacturers

    Few people know it, but taxpayer dollars are going to help pay for the manufacture of the single-use plastic that is trashing our planet. A new report by the Environmental Integrity Project, “Feeding the Plastics Industrial Complex: Taking Public Subsidies, Breaking Pollution Laws,” reveals that two thirds of the 50 plastics manufacturing plants built or expanded in the U.S. since 2012 received a total of $9 billion in state and local government subsidies and tax breaks. These plastics companies often promise to protect the environment to win these government subsidies. But then, 84 percent of them violate their air pollution control permits – including by releasing dangerous chemicals like benzene, a carcinogen. Who pays for these tax breaks for pollution? Two thirds of the people who live around these factories are people of color, and they are being hit twice -- first, by losing out on billions in revenues that could otherwise improve their schools and communities. And second, by having to breathe in hazardous air pollutants, in violation of the law. We interview Erin Hansen, an analyst with a nonprofit advocacy organization, Together Louisiana, about these tax breaks in Louisiana. And we also talk to environmental activists who live in the shadow of Louisiana plastics factories: James Hiatt and Roishetta Ozane.

    22 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

We discuss important environmental issues in the news and investigative reports by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project.

Information

  • Creator
    Environmental Integrity Podcast
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2025
  • Episodes
    31
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    Environmental Integrity Project

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