Emily Schwartz Greco

The Porter Ranch disaster may erase the industry’s undeserved reputation as a clean energy source.

When 27 CSX tanker cars loaded with fracked North Dakota crude tumbled onto a West Virginia riverbank on President’s Day, the ensuing fireballs leveled a house and forced hundreds of people to flee amid a heavy snowstorm.

With so many homeowners and businesses making greener energy choices, private utilities—along with big oil, gas, coal, and nuclear companies—see the writing on the wall. Unlike some other denizens of the fossil-fueled set, this gang isn’t beating oil wells into solar panels, retiring nuclear reactors, or embracing wind and geothermal power. Instead, these guys are trying to coax lawmakers into rigging the rules against increasingly competitive new energy alternatives.

There’s some good news about the news business for a change.