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Oil stayed in its recent tight range after Hurricane Laura swept through the U.S. energy heartland without appearing to inflict major damage on key infrastructure.

DELCAMBRE, La. — Laura strengthened Aug. 26 into a menacing Category 4 hurricane, raising fears of a 20-foot storm surge that forecasters said would be “unsurvivable” and capable of sinking entire communities. Authorities implored coastal residents of Texas and Louisiana to evacuate and worried that not enough had fled.

Crude and gasoline futures both climbed to levels not seen since before the pandemic as Hurricane Laura rattled toward a key stretch of the U.S. Gulf Coast that is home to the nation’s greatest concentration of refining capacity.

Hurricane Laura is poised to strengthen rapidly and come ashore along the Texas-Louisiana coast as a tree-snapping Category 3 storm, forcing residents to flee their homes despite the threat of COVID-19.

Environmentalists and Alaska natives are challenging the Trump administration’s decision to sell drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, arguing the government gave short shrift to the impact on polar bears and the region’s other wildlife.

Back-to-back tropical storms pose a combined threat to the U.S. Gulf Coast this week, where more than half of offshore oil production is already shut and residents from Texas to Florida are warily watching the skies.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services has issued a report that provides a window into the company’s current energy usage and outlines a series of corporatewide sustainability goals it has adopted.

The trucking industry collectively moved 11.84 billion tons of freight in 2019, according to American Trucking Associations’ annual data compendium — ATA American Trucking Trends 2020 — which was released July 13. That figure is a 3% year-over-year increase from 2018’s 11.49 tons of freight.

Oil refineries aren’t being spared as COVID-19 sweeps through Texas, which is setting records for new infections and hospitalizations in the U.S. almost daily.

House Democrats say Congress should increase funding for programs at EPA and the Department of Energy to reduce emissions from equipment at ports.