Environmental Protests

Oil Prices Continue To Rise With Demand

On September 28, 2015, Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) announced its decision to cancel its Arctic drilling operations after unsuccessful exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea off the northwest coast of Alaska. Shell decided to exit the Arctic after an investment of approximately $7 billion in oil exploration, citing disappointing exploratory results at the Burger J… Keep reading →

Oil Boom Shifts The Landscape Of Rural North Dakota

Bakken crude producers and midstream transportation companies already experience transportation woes related to inadequate pipeline infrastructure, railroad capacity, tank car supply, rail accidents, and new regulations. But they also increasingly face a new problem: lawsuits. In September alone, the Sierra Club, one of the largest environmental organizations in the United States, filed two lawsuits challenging different aspects of crude-by-rail transportation. First, on the national level, the Sierra Club seeks to stop the transportation of crude oil in allegedly outdated and unsafe tank cars. And second, at the state level, the Sierra Club accuses a local agency of illegally permitting a rail-to-truck facility.