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oil drilling

Trump Administration Auctions Contested Arctic Lands for Oil Drilling

Oil companies bid on more than 1 million acres in the first lease sale in the Western Arctic since 2019. The tracts included areas where leasing appears to be prohibited.

By Nicholas Kusnetz

Oil pipelines stretch across the landscape outside Nuiqsut, Alaska, where ConocoPhillips operates the Alpine Field. Credit: Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Caribou graze by a portion of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System near the Dalton Highway on May 9, 2025, in Alaska’s North Slope. Credit: Lance King/Getty Images

Expanded Arctic Drilling Faces a Wave of Lawsuits

By Nicholas Kusnetz

An aerial photo shows the oil rig collapsed in the snow next to a snowy road, emergency vehicles and an industrial complex

As an Oil Rig Topples in the Alaskan Arctic and Ignites a Fire, Exploration There Continues

By Nicholas Kusnetz

A part of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System runs through boreal forest near Delta Junction, Alaska. Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Congress Axes Biden-Era Protections That Shielded Alaskan Wetlands From Drilling

By Carl David Goette-Luciak

More than 90 species of reef fish, including the commercially important southern red snapper, depend on the Great Amazon Reef System, where they feed and shelter in its crevices and caves. Credit: Greenpeace Brazil

As COP30 Unfolds in the Amazon, Brazil Is Drilling for Oil Near the Great Amazon Reef System

By Teresa Tomassoni

Duayne Ruona works on a Laramie Energy oil rig on Oct. 10, 2024 in Garfield County, Colo. Credit: Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Trump Promised a Drilling Boom. The New Rigs Haven’t Showed Up Yet

By Deep Vakil

Sharon Wilson, of the non-profit Oilfield Witness, uses a gas imaging camera to capture otherwise invisible emissions from an Energy Transfer compressor station in Arlington, Texas. Credit: Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate News

‘Drill Baby Drill’: Texas City Approves New Site for Fracking Near Daycare and Schools

By Dylan Baddour

Behind the Scenes: Using Direct Democracy to Keep Oil in the Ground Is More Complex Than it Seems

By Kiley Price

An oil drilling rig operates near Pinedale in Sublette County, Wyoming. Credit: William Campbell/Corbis via Getty Images

Judge Orders Oil and Gas Leases in Wyoming to Proceed After Updated BLM Environmental Analysis

By Jake Bolster

At Raccoon Point, in the Big Cypress National Preserve, oil was detected in 1978. Production began in 1981, and the field was expanded in 1992. Credit: National Parks Conservation Association/LightHawk

Oil Drilling Has Endured in the Everglades for Decades. Now, the Miccosukee Tribe Has a Plan to Stop It

By Amy Green

An oil drilling rig works in the Permian Basin oil field in Midland, Texas. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Thousands of Oil and Gas Wastewater Spills Threaten Property, Groundwater, Wildlife and Livestock Across Texas

By Martha Pskowski

A large fracking operation becomes a new part of the horizon with Mount Meeker and Longs Peak looming in the background on Dec. 28, 2017 in Loveland, Colorado. Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Colorado Frackers Doubled Freshwater Use During Megadrought, Even as Drilling and Oil Production Fell

By Liza Gross

Inglewood Oil Field in Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles, California. Credit: Citizens of the Planet/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

California Bill Would Hit Oil Companies With $1 Million Penalty for Health Impacts

By Aaron Cantú, Capital & Main

An active oil drilling rig is located in a housing community next to homes on Sept. 21, 2022 in Signal Hill, California. Credit: Allison Dinner/Getty Images

Oil Industry Moves to Overturn Historic California Drilling Protection Law

By Liza Gross

A large fracking operation becomes a new part of the horizon with Mount Meeker and Longs Peak looming in the background on December 28, 2017 in Loveland, Colorado. Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Biden Promised to Stop Oil Drilling on Public Lands. Is His Failure to Do So a Betrayal or a Smart Political Move?

By Marianne Lavelle

National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Credit: National Park Service

Trump Plan Would Open Huge Area of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve to Drilling

By Sabrina Shankman

Shell's Kulluk mobile oil drilling rig is towed by tugs off the coast Alaska in

Committee to Make Offshore Oil Drilling Safer May Disband

By Jason Plautz

Greenpeace activists on the oil-drilling platform Leiv Eiriksson

Activists Scale Oil Rig to Protest Arctic Drilling

John Vidal, Guardian

Old oil rig

Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells Tainting U.S. Drinking Water

By Nicholas Kusnetz, ProPublica

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