The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "refinery" ...
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Renegade Refinery
Just weeks after the Deepwater Horizon disaster began, an analysis of inspection data obtained from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that two oil refineries owned by BP accounted for a staggering 97 of the most flagrant violations found by OSHA inspectors. Most of these citation's were categorized as "egregiously willful."
Tags: Deepwater Horizon; BP; oil spill; OSHA; Gulf of Mexico
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In Harm's Way
The Houston Chronicle funded and conducted a study into air quality at 84 homes and 16 public places in four Southwest Texas communities adjacent to major refineries and/or chemical plants. The newspaper also analyzed more than a decade's worth of air pollution data collected by the state. The effort revealed that residents in this area were being exposed to elevated levels of dangerous and cancer-causing pollutants. Officials were aware of this and some of their own employees charged with monitoring the air were getting sick themselves. The study was able to pinpoint the culprit, adjacent industries.
Tags: pollution; industrial waste; public safety; pollutants; benzene; 1; 3-butadiene; air toxins; Texas Release Inventory; Texas Emissions Events; Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
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BP Explosion: What Went Wrong
After the March 2005 BP refinery accident, the worst in over a decade, the Houston Chronicle investigated. A collection of problems were discovered that BP had not revealed. The deaths of 15 workers were due to BP not keeping to its own safety standards, or those of the industry.
Tags: BP; oil; refinery; accidents; safety standards
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The Big Squeeze By Big Oil and Coffeyville Plant Brews Oil, Profits
For years, many have suspected that the oil industry has been shutting down refineries for the sake of putting a squeeze on the market. Shutting down refineries and reducing available supplies and materials has helped to drive up gas prices and demolish available jobs. This investigation goes deeper to discover the truth behind rising gas prices.
Tags: oil; refineries; gas prices; refinery capacity; supplies; American Petroleum Institute; Total oil refinery; Coffeyville Plant
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EPA regulation of oil refineries
The paper's three-month investigation found clean-air enforcement actions at oil refineries were being scaled back and the country's worst air polluters were continuing to operate without repercussions. And though the Environmental Protection Agency made claims about efforts to make air cleaner, it let oil refineries miss court-ordered deadlines. Meanwhile, residents living nearby suffer the consequences.
Tags: oil; refinery; EPA; Environmental Protection Agency; pollution; air; petroleum; inspection; violation; Petroleum Refinery Initiative; pollutant; health; safety; chemical; environment
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Flying Gas Prices: The Shell Game
This investigation uncovered an oil company scandal: Shell Oil Company was planning to close a refinery, even though it was making big profits. The investigation found that, even though Shell Oil claimed the oil field was tapped out, the real motivation for the closure was to fix oil prices.
Tags: oil; petroleum; whistleblower; gas; corporate documents; business reporting; monopoly
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Bull! A history of the boom and bust, 1982-2004
This book examines the Great Bull Market of 1982-1999 and the fallout that followed. Overpriced stocks sucked capital out of the U.S. economy. Billions of dollars that could have been invested in needed projects such as power plants and oil refineries were squandered on massive overinvestment in the technology sector. Individual investors caught up in the mania sacrificed their retirement nest egg or children's college fund for the hyped promises of the stock market -- gambling with money that they could ill afford to lose.
Tags: stock market; bull market; Great Bull Market; investing; stocks; 401 (k); investments
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Blowing Smoke: Even as the EPA was publicly touting its efforts to make the air cleaner, it was privately allowing 25 oil refineries to miss dozens of court-ordered deadlines
This series focuses on the EPA's promise to the public that it would force refineries to clean up their acts with the Petroleum Refinery Initiative. The EPA also required these companies, which consisted of 48 corporations in 24 states, to meet specific deadlines set by the courts in order to clear pollutants in the air. The Star-Telegram uncovered that the EPA allowed at least 17 of these companies to quietly miss deadlines "prolonging the exposure of hundreds of thousands of people to dangerous pollutants."
Tags: Environmental Protection Agency's Petroleum Refinery Initiative
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Target For Terror
NBC 10 reporters demonstrate just how easy it would be for anyone, even potential terrorists, to gain access to Valero refinery, just down the Delaware riverfront. The refinery was just one facility that the crew managed to gain access to other refineries with even weaker security.
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Pumped Up: Shock at the Wheel: Wonder Why Gas Prices Suddenly Got So High?
The WSJ reports that "the movement to regulate gasoline more stringently, begun in the mid-1990s, is colliding head-on with a still-strong economy and the arrival of gas-guzzling vehicles that have pushed up demand faster than domestic refining capacity could match...The result: tight supply, not enough extra capacity and prices that the slightest worries can send soaring...Sport-utility vehicles, pickups and minivans make up 43% of the vehicles on the road today, up from 30% in 1990...The problem (of high gas prices) is most severe on the West Coast and in the third of the county where Environmental Protection Agency regulations require the sale of lower-emission gasoline." Additionally, many of the country's biggest oil companies have gotten out of the refining business.
Tags: energy; gasoline; gas prices; sport-utility vehicles; clean air; refining; refinery; refineries; Unocal