Support the fact-based journalism you rely on with a donation to Marketplace today. Give Now!

Trump's visit to Shell plant highlights natural gas challenges

Aug 13, 2019
Pennsylvania's natural gas industry hopes the plant can bring a lifeline to a sector beleaguered by overproduction.
Plastic bottles and other trash washed up on the shores of Scotland.
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Can batteries help get the U.S. off the natural gas “bridge?”

Jul 17, 2019
The bridge keeps getting longer, with utilities and energy companies adding hundreds of gas plants around the country.
Energy company AES is putting the finishing touches on a new natural gas unit in Long Beach, California.
Ben Bradford/Marketplace

Amid fracking boom, some drillers struggle to earn

Jul 11, 2019
Natural gas companies are struggling, in large part because the prices they’re selling at are so low.
Swallows fly past a high-pressure gas line crossing a canal in an oil field over the Monterey Shale formation where gas and oil are extracted using fracking near Lost Hills, California.
David McNew/Getty Images

Carbon emissions rise but could slide in 2019

Jan 8, 2019
For the first time in four years U.S. carbon emissions increased, mostly because a booming economy used more energy resources, even with a shift toward renewable energy and natural gas. But can a booming economy and rising emissions decouple? Click the audio player above to hear the full story.

Qatar leaving OPEC to focus on natural gas

Dec 3, 2018
The Persian Gulf state of Qatar, one of the smallest members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, will leave the cartel in January after nearly six decades. Qatar said the move allows it to focus on its natural gas industry. Qatar’s decision says a lot about the growth of natural gas in the world’s […]

Duke Energy CEO on the future of energy

Oct 9, 2018
The company's big challenge is keeping pace with technology.
Lynn Good, president and CEO of Duke Energy, speaks at the KPMG Women's Leadership Summit in 2015 in Harrison, New York.
Scott Halleran/Getty Images for KPMG

Why China loves American natural gas more than it hates our tariffs

Jul 11, 2018
Ever since the shale revolution turned the U.S. into one of the world’s biggest energy exporters, other countries have been clamoring to buy American oil. One product in particular is seeing huge demand abroad – liquefied natural gas. Refineries turn natural gas into liquid to make it easier to ship overseas. In fact, as trade […]

For public good, not for profit.

Texan oil man T. Boone Pickens hangs up his hat

Jan 12, 2018
Infamous investor T. Boone Pickens is closing his BP Capital fund and retiring at age 89 after amassing a fortune in energy — everything from oil and natural gas, to wind power and water. Click the audio player above to hear the full story. 

Trump moves to vastly expand offshore drilling off U.S. coasts

Jan 4, 2018
The new five-year drilling plan also could open new areas of oil and gas exploration in areas off the East Coast from Georgia to Maine, where drilling has been blocked for decades.
Night comes to oil and gas platforms near the Federal Ecological Reserve in the Santa Barbara Channel, Feb. 15, 2001, near Santa Barbara, California.
David McNew/Newsmakers

Cold snaps mean way more demand for natural gas

Jan 3, 2018
There’s plenty of natural gas available to heat and power homes through the cold spell that’s gripping much of the U.S. The problem is getting it where it’s needed, and hiccups in that process can mean price spikes. Click the audio player above to hear the full story.