Inside Energy

Questions over the country’s energy future surfaced in the Presidential debate Sunday night. It was a surprising 5 minutes of actual policy discussion in an otherwise tense debate focused mainly on character assassinations. For Inside Energy, StateImpact Pennsylvania’s Susan Phillips takes a look at how the facts stack up to the candidates comments on energy.

Electricity prices typically move in one direction: up. But for the first time in more than a decade, residential electricity prices have dropped nationwide.

Electricity prices typically move in one direction: up. But for the first time in more than a decade, residential electricity prices have dropped nationwide.

In 2014, a massive explosion tore through the Williams natural gas processing plant in Opal. It forced the evacuation of the southwestern Wyoming town and caused a spike in the price of natural gas. Wyoming’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration conducted an investigation in the aftermath and found a number of safety violations. But the agency never collected the corresponding fines and never released a final report about the investigation.

Researchers are starting to draw a straight line between ozone and oil and gas development. A recent study out of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration found that 17 percent of new ozone on an average summer day in Colorado's front range comes from oil and gas emissions.

Pipeline Drama Casts Shadow Over Oil Industry by Inside Energy

Native American leaders from all over the country are traveling to Washington to meet with President Obama on Monday at his last Tribal Nations Conference. Meanwhile in North Dakota, protesters remain camped out in opposition to a controversial oil pipeline. Inside Energy’s Leigh Paterson reports that the Standing Rock Sioux tribe- and others- are bringing issues from the prairie all the way to the capital.

Legislators see the increase as a way to raise revenues in the face of a massive budget shortfall due to a drop in coal, oil and gas production. But wind developers say it's a dangerous gamble for a state that has some of the best wind power potential in the nation.

One thing we can say about this year's presidential election...it's not following the usual rules. Take the oil and gas industry for example. It has given more to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton than it has to Republican nominee Donald Trump. With Trump planning to address Shale gas drillers this week (Thursday 9/22) at a conference in Pittsburgh, StateImpact Pennsylvania's Susan Phillips reports for Inside Energy on another twist in this odd campaign season.

Fight Feels Familiar For Tribes At Pipeline Protest by Inside Energy

What started as a small protest in North Dakota over a pipeline has turned into a national fight. The Dakota Access Pipeline would carry oil over a thousand miles from North Dakota to Illinois. Protests started in April with a handful of members from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe But on Tuesday, thousands of people joined solidarity protests in cities across the country to oppose the pipeline. Inside Energy’s Leigh Paterson starts us off in Denver.

Tribes Win One Fight, Lose Another In Pipeline Protest by Inside Energy

Hillary Clinton’s energy whisperers have roots in fossil fuel country. Trevor Houser grew up in coal-rich Wyoming. He part of a small team behind Clinton’s energy strategy. Inside Energy’s Leigh Paterson spoke with Houser about crafting energy policy in the middle of an energy bust.

A Battle Over Bringing Local Renewables To Rural Electric Co-ops by Inside Energy

The latest fight in the battle over local control of oil and gas drilling in Colorado may have come to an end this week. Two ballot measures to restrict drilling failed to make the November ballot. But that issue has not gone away. Inside Energy’s Leigh Paterson reports that the question of how best to regulate oil and gas development, especially in populated areas like Colorado’s Front Range, is likely to come up again… and again.

In fiscal year 2016, the University of Wyoming’s utility bill was $10.8 million—almost $2 million more than fiscal year 2015. Next year, as new buildings under construction come online, that bill is likely to increase, even as the University faces $41 million in budget cuts. That means there may be hard choices ahead—keep the lights on, or keep people employed.

Donald Trump is wooing energy-state voters by promising a presidency that will champion coal, promote drilling and free frackers from federal regulations limiting oil and gas development. As StateImpact journalist Joe Wertz reports for Inside Energy, oil-state influencers are helping shape the platform of the Republican presidential candidate.

So far, seven initiatives have been approved for Colorado’s November ballot. That’s a perfect score for the various measures, including a minimum wage increase and one that allows “death with dignity” for the terminally-ill. The Secretary of State is now sorting through the signatures for two more measures. They’re the last two to be considered and, taken together, they would seriously restrict oil and gas development in the state. Government workers are doing the tedious work of sorting through boxes of petitions to determine if Initiatives 75 and 78 have the 98,482 signatures required to be placed on the ballot. Inside Energy's Leigh Paterson reports.

Pipeline Battle Draws Hundreds To Remote North Dakota by Inside Energy

Amid a wave of historic coal bankruptcies, states like Texas and Colorado, have taken proactive steps to make sure coal companies are on the hook for their future cleanup costs. In other states, like Wyoming, over a billion dollars of these cleanup costs have gotten tied up in bankruptcy court. Inside Energy’s Leigh Paterson reports on why we’re seeing different outcomes in different energy-rich states, starting off in a small town in central Texas called Elgin.