BailoutWatch

A pipeline that would carry methane gas from Texas to be exported from the Pacific coast of Mexico is quickly clearing U.S. regulatory hurdles. But the entire prospect of exporting U.S. gas through Mexico looks increasingly shaky as the Biden administration takes a much-needed look at a host of problems caused by booming gas exports. Called the Saguaro Connector, the planned project already received a deeply flawed State Department approval in November.

A pipeline that would carry methane gas from Texas to be exported from the Pacific coast of Mexico is quickly clearing U.S. regulatory hurdles. But the entire prospect of exporting U.S. gas through Mexico looks increasingly shaky as the Biden administration takes a much-needed look at a host of problems caused by booming gas exports. Called the Saguaro Connector, the planned project already received a deeply flawed State Department approval in November.

The United States is in the midst of a liquefied methane boom. In 2023, the US became the world’s top exporter of the fuel, which is used to heat homes and run power plants. By 2028, exports of North American liquid methane — what the industry calls liquefied natural gas or LNG — are expected to more than double. Fossil fuel corporations want to keep the fracked-gas party going.

How the Biden Administration can halt methane infrastructure expansion

Analysis With war and gas prices pushing oil and gas to record profits, some firms faced failure. Instead, the government’s pandemic handouts cushioned them from market forces Oil and gas companies that got billions in direct government bailouts are minting money faster than the industry overall, a new BailoutWatch analysis has found, as fossil fuel companies post record-high profits driven by punishing gas prices and the war in Ukraine.

Workers’ pay fell while top executives’ pay rose at the biggest oil and gas companies last year, a new BailoutWatch analysis has found, undercutting industry claims of a labor shortage driven by negative publicity and worker disinterest. CEO pay at the 15 biggest U.S.-based oil and gas companies rose, on average, about 4% from 2021 to 2022, recent corporate disclosures show. Worker pay, by contrast, dipped about 1% in the same period, even as high inflation reduced people’s spending power.

Workers’ pay fell while top executives’ pay rose at the biggest oil and gas companies last year, a new BailoutWatch analysis has found, undercutting industry claims of a labor shortage driven by negative publicity and worker disinterest. CEO pay at the 15 biggest U.S.-based oil and gas companies rose, on average, about 4% from 2021 to 2022, recent corporate disclosures show. Worker pay, by contrast, dipped about 1% in the same period, even as high inflation reduced people’s spending power.

Big Oil companies and trade groups helped lead the fight against proposed rail safety rules that could have limited damage from the East Palestine disaster, spending $152 million while successfully lobbying to roll back safety standards during the Trump Administration.

US methane gas exports, which have skyrocketed in recent years, are poised to boom in the wake of the war in Ukraine, threatening to push up prices for consumers and unleash massive climate-warming emissions, a new analysis by Friends of the Earth, Public Citizen, and BailoutWatch has found. Fossil fuel executives are exploiting the Russian invasion of Ukraine to justify contracts that commit the United States to keep exporting LNG into the 2040s.

The epidemic of utilities shutting off people’s electric and gas service for nonpayment has continued unabated in the months since our earlier Powerless in the Pandemic publications, which tracked utility disconnections and corporate profits since COVID-19 began. Utilities shut off power to households an estimated 4.2 million times in the first 10 months of 2022. The harm is real and self-evident, as are the solutions.