Justin Mikulka

About

Justin Mikulka is a research fellow at New Consensus. Prior to joining New Consensus in October 2021, Justin reported for DeSmog, where he began in 2014. Justin has a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University.

onOct 17, 2018 @ 14:33 PDT

While a second oil-by-rail boom is well underway in North America, both the U.S. and Canada are taking steps that ignore or undermine the lessons and regulatory measuresย to improve safety since the...
onOct 15, 2018 @ 09:44 PDT

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported in September that crude oil exports are continuing toย setย records, mostly due to the fracking boom in the Permian Basin, in Texas and New M...
onSep 18, 2018 @ 05:48 PDT

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has clearly documented the multiple risks โ€” despite repeatedย dismissalsย fromย the oil and gas industry โ€” thatย hydraulic fracturing (fracking)ย poses to ...
onSep 5, 2018 @ 09:38 PDT

The City of South Portland, Maine, won a major legal victory at the end of August when a federal judge ruled that the cityโ€™s effective ban on tar sands oilย did not violate the Commerce Clause of th...
onAug 10, 2018 @ 12:51 PDT

In the climactic final scene in There Will Be Blood โ€”ย arguably the greatest movie about the oil industry โ€”ย the main character played by Daniel Day Lewis explains how he sucked the oil from a neighb...
onAug 3, 2018 @ 10:28 PDT

In a big win for the City of Portland, Oregon, the Oregon Court of Appeals issued a ruling that the city had not violated the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause by voting to ban any new fossil fue...
onJul 19, 2018 @ 13:48 PDT

The oil and gas industry is finally acknowledging how dangerous employment can be for its workers after yearsย of touting the sector as a beacon of worker safety. This sudden honesty about the dange...
onJul 11, 2018 @ 03:57 PDT

In the five years since the oil train disaster in Lac-Mรฉgantic, Quebec, claimed 47 lives, the world has learned much about the risks that hauling oil by rail poses. One of the clearest lessons is h...
onJun 29, 2018 @ 08:45 PDT

At a recent industry conference, Terry Spencer, headย ofย natural gas infrastructure company ONEOK, made clear the direction the fracking industry was headed:ย โ€œOne of these days one of these big olโ€™ ...
onJun 25, 2018 @ 18:25 PDT

On June 22, aย train carrying Canadian crude oil derailed in northwestern Iowa, releasing an estimated 230,000 gallons of oil into a flooded river.ย As a result of the derailment, over 30 rail tank c...