Posts by Justin Mikulka

A recent visit to the Sinclair Navajo Refinery in Artesia, New Mexico, a facility with a history of pollution violations — despite being located a few hundred feet from an elementary school — revealed ongoing emissions. This visit was part of an informational field tour I organized for some of the field staff from the…

In 2019 the U.S. oil industry was on a roll and a long hot streak of constantly breaking records for new crude oil production. It would seem an odd time to write an article asking the question, “Will the Fracking Revolution Peak Before Ever Making Money?” but that is what I did. And now here we are…

We’ve been warned of inconvenient truths. A movie was made about society’s unspoken agreement to ignore science and reality and the current U.S. regime is making that movie’s head-in-the-sand approach of science denial official policy. Meanwhile, the very real impacts of our changing climate are becoming harder to ignore. Polls are showing that a good portion of the U.S.…

In a recent Wall Street Week video report on oil industry methane emissions there was a great insight into what the oil industry plans to do when it comes to environmental liabilities and the world in general. After hearing how there was potential to plug old oil and gas wells and have that possibly be a money…

The U.S. is working hard to get the rest of the world hooked on expensive and dirty liquefied natural gas (LNG) and is getting plenty of help from the banking system in other countries like Japan. The example I will focus on today is the proposed Mexico Pacific LNG export facility in Puerto Libertad on…

In the world of shale oil and gas production there is a concept known as “the Red Queen effect.” In this 2014 article, it explains that, “The ‘Red Queen’ effect refers to the relatively short lifespan of fracking wells, which tend to reach peak production earlier than conventional wells.” The Red Queen is from Lewis Carroll’s…

The true hoax of this energy transition is the idea that the U.S. has unlimited oil and gas that is just waiting to be produced as soon as those tree-hugging liberals stop standing in the way. Did you hear that the Republicans have threatened Europe that if they don’t buy more U.S. oil they will…

The American Lung Association just put out a strong statement on the danger of methane noting the unseen hazards of methane and the “cascade of risks” that harm communities.  “As the colder months settle in and we spend more time indoors, it’s crucial to recognize the unseen hazards that methane gas, often called “natural” gas,…

Methane is getting some attention as we also learn new information on the severity of the problem of methane emissions in the oil and gas industry. Unfortunately, despite all of the good intentions (e.g. better monitoring via satellites, oil company promises, etc) methane emissions continue to rise. Sharon Wilson continues to document the root cause…

Earlier this month our team went out on shrimp boats in the Gulf to observe emissions from liquefied natural gas export terminals in Louisiana. While the main concern of the shrimpers is that since the export terminal was built, shrimp catches have fallen dramatically, they also get a front seat to the air pollution. One…