Stuart H. Smith

Louisiana Uses BP Funds to Construct Indoor “Mini Swamp” in Downtown Manhattan

An unassuming warehouse on the banks of the Hudson River provides cover for the most absurd – not to mention irresponsible – use of BP tourism funds to date. Inside is a 1,600-square-foot artificial swamp, just like the kind you’d find down on the bayou in Louisiana (except fake) – complete with live alligators, turtles and 15-foot cypress trees draped in Spanish moss. Why, you ask? What purpose could this [...]

News Round-Up: February 13, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Air Sampling Reveals High Emissions From Gas Field

BP's Big Apple Alligator Stunt Bites

Fukushima Radiation May Be Killing Off Alaskan Ringed Seals and Other Arctic Mammals

News Round-Up: February 10, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Chesapeake Energy Fined $565,000 for Pennsylvania Violations

BP’s Past Accidents Barred as Evidence at First Gulf Spill Trial

U.S. Approves First Nuclear Plant In Decades

When the Party Gets Too Loud: New Orleans Residents Wither Under Noise Pollution

The French Quarter in New Orleans is the heart and soul of the southern party scene. All the essential ingredients are here, in abundance: great drinks, even better food, revelers of every stripe and music – live, loud music deep into the night. From Jazz Fest to Mardi Gras and all the gumbo and crawfish festivals in between, the French Quarter knows how to throw a party. Although the Quarter [...]

News Round-Up: February 9, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Fox Finds Irony In His Bust

BP Could Face Up to $17.6 Billion in Fines for Largest Offshore Oil Spill in U.S. History

Emails Show Panic Within US Nuke Agency in Wake of Fukushima Disaster

News Round-Up: February 8, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Frack, No: Vermont Looks North to Québec as It Considers a Ban on Natural-Gas Drilling

BP Plans to Drill Deeper Than Ever

Messages Show Conflict Within NRC After Japan’s Earthquake and Tsunami

What Are They Hiding? “Gasland” Filmmaker Handcuffed, Escorted Out of Public Hearing on Fracking

Why would House Republicans bar an Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker from last week’s public hearing on hydraulic fracturing? Hmmmmmm. Could it be that they’re hiding something? Nah, couldn’t be – particularly in light of the fact that the filmmaker happened to be environmental crusader Josh Fox, whose film “Gasland” awoke America to the grave environmental and public health risks tied to fracking. It was an unfortunate episode nonetheless, adding yet another [...]

News Round-Up: February 6, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Fracking With a Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On

Groups Sue to Halt 7-Year Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico

Bird Population in Collapse Near Fukushima

Site Off Louisiana Coast Has Been Leaking Hundreds of Gallons of Oil Every Day – For 7 Years

When Hurricane Ivan blew across the Gulf of Mexico in 2004, it severely damaged an offshore platform and 28 associated oil wells owned by Taylor Energy Company. The site has been leaking oil ever since, without any discernible spill response from Taylor or the U.S. Coast Guard. Environmental groups monitoring the site – at the surface and via satellite – estimate that “hundreds of gallons have leaked from the site [...]

News Round-Up: February 2, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Ronald Fraser: Gas Industry Money Tilts the Debate On Drilling

Should Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Oil Spills?

CA Nuclear Plant Closed Due To Leak

Feds Pave Way for Fracking Industry to Perpetrate Biggest Land Grab in U.S. History

Officials from Central New York Oil & Gas recently informed landowner Bob Swartz that the company plans to cut “a 50-foot-wide, 400-foot-long gash through an ancient stand of trees” in his front yard to clear the way for a $250 million, 39-mile natural gas pipeline in the mountains of northern Pennsylvania. Not surprisingly, Mr. Swartz balked at the company’s heavy-handed plan, recommending an alternate route for the pipeline out across [...]

News Round-Up: February 1, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Drillers Must Now Disclose Fracking Chemicals

Spill Cleanup? Just a Cost of Doing Business?

Atomic Agency Backs Safety Tests for Japan’s Reactors

News Round-Up: January 30, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Experts Deliver Dire Warnings About Fracking Impacts

South Mobile Students Still Suffering From Oil Spill (Video)

Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Leaks Water For At Least The Third Time This Month

Top BP Officials Demanded That Expert’s Alarming Oil Spill Estimate Be Kept Secret

On April 22, 2010, top BP officials knew that the crippled Macondo Well would release roughly 82,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico if the leak was unobstructed. An oil spill expert with impeccable credentials had told them so. Yet, two days later, as the federal government was scrambling to mobilize an effective response to the unfolding disaster, BP announced publicly that the well was leaking [...]

News Round-Up: January 27, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Prospect Of Fracking Causes Concern

Op-Ed: The Mississippi Delta Must Be Restored

Experts Cast Doubt on Japan Nuclear Plant Tests

Whistleblower Says BP Intentionally Left Oil Debris on Gulf Coast Beaches Then Falsified Cleanup Reports

Warning: You may want to hold off on booking that Gulf Coast vacation – because the beaches aren’t as clean or safe as official reports indicate. According to a whistleblower lawsuit filed in New Orleans, BP cleanup crews intentionally left oil debris on Mississippi beaches while company officials falsely reported that the areas were adequately cleaned. (So much for public safety.) The lawsuit alleges that BP fired August Walter Jr. [...]

News Round-Up: January 26, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Fracked-Off: Gas Extraction 'Causes Quakes'

U.S. to Sell 38 Mln Acres in Gulf of Mexico for Oil Drilling

Take a Look Inside a Fukushima Nuclear Reactor [VIDEO]

News Round-Up: January 25, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Is The Booming Natural Gas Industry Overproducing?

Master Plan Forgets Bayou Communities, Residents Say

Japan Task Force Kept No Records of Nuclear Crisis Response

News Round-Up: January 24, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Groups Rally For Fracking Bills in NY State

Whistleblower Says BP Fired Him for Refusing To Skew Cleanup Data

Japanese Government Concealing Facts About Fukushima

Aiding and Abetting the Perpetrator: Email Confirms White House Pressured Scientists to Lie About Size of BP Spill

It’s official: The White House engaged in an aggressive campaign to pressure scientists into drastically underestimating the initial size of the BP oil spill – a campaign that impacted the scope, speed and overall effectiveness of the response. There are also legal ramifications, as fines are to be levied against BP based on how much oil is estimated to have been released into the Gulf of Mexico. Here’s how Mother [...]

BP’s Gulf Coast Legacy: More Sick Children than We’ve Ever Seen Before

Children on the Gulf Coast are falling ill in record numbers. Children who never had health problems before the BP oil spill are suffering from an array of debilitating ailments from chronic bronchitis to staph infections to acute sinusitis to mysterious “stomach viruses.” The ranks of the sick continue to climb, overwhelming doctors and clinics up and down the Gulf Coast. And to make matters worse, few treatments and medications [...]

News Round-Up: January 23, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

EPA Finally Supplies Drinking Water to Pennsylvania Fracking Victims

Report: White House Pressured Scientists to Underestimate BP Spill Size

First Images From Within Fukushima Containment

News Round-Up: January 20, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Fracked: The Debate Over Shale Gas Deepens

Don't Believe the (BP) Hype!

Japan Still Pushing Nuclear Power

Business Booms for BP: CEO Bob Dudley Calls 2011 “Best Year” in Three Decades

BP’s business prospects are soaring. In fact, 2011 was the British oil giant’s best “business development” year in three decades. It’s inconceivable, infuriating, repugnant – but true, nonetheless. While parts of the Gulf Coast remain soaked in BP’s oil, the British petroleum giant has been rewarded with scores of new drilling contracts – 80 to be exact, in 11 countries. And get this, the majority of the “exploration prospects” are [...]

Chevron’s Hubris in the Amazon: Failure to Publicly Apologize for Damage Will Cost Oil Giant $10 Billion

It’s been called the worst environmental crime ever perpetrated, anywhere in the world. Billions of gallons of toxic oil-drilling waste indiscriminately dumped into pristine Amazon waterways used for drinking, fishing and bathing by tens of thousands of Ecuadorians. Three decades of “deliberate” contamination laid waste to an expanse of lush rainforest comparable to the size of Rhode Island. Today, noxious pools of oily sludge still drain into local rivers and [...]

News Round-Up: January 17, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

New York State Not Prepared to Cope with Fracking Risks

Gulf of Mexico Topography Played Key Role In Bacterial Consumption of Deepwater Horizon Spill

Fukushima's Owner Adds Insult to Injury - Claims Radioactive Fallout Isn't Theirs

News Round-Up: January 16, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Fracking Companies Promote Jobs Across US Hoping To Conceal Risks

USF Study Finds More Sick Fish in Oil Spill Area Than Rest of Gulf of Mexico

Fukushima Fallout: Thousands Protest Against Nuclear Power in Japan

News Round-Up: January 13, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

EPA Seeks Outside Review of ‘Fracking’ Pollution Report

Restoring What BP Destroyed

NRC ‘Can Learn Lessons’ From Response To Fukushima-Daiichi

Engineering Expert Calls Fracking a “Chillingly Effective and Thorough Method” of Poisoning Drinking Water

Few people know fracking better than Paul Hetzler. He’s an environmental engineering technician who for years worked for New York’s Department for Environmental Conservation (DEC). Mr. Hetzler managed dozens of groundwater remediation projects in the 1990s. He’s pored over “thousands of lab results from contaminated wells,” and he’s intimately familiar with the movement of contaminants through fractured rock formations. In an intensifying national debate brimming with so-called experts, by all [...]

News Round-Up: January 12, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Lung Association Expresses Concern Over Air Pollution From Fracking

Gulf Oil-Spill Responders Say They're Still Fighting for Payments

TEPCO Believes Mission Accomplished & Regulators Allow Radioactive Dumping in Tokyo Bay (VIDEO)

BP Oil Spill May Have Caused Fish Embryos to “Disintegrate” En Masse

The damage the BP oil spill caused to fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico may be even more devastating than previously thought – and the recovery may be much longer and more difficult than expected. New groundbreaking research from the University of California Davis reveals that fish embryos that absorbed oil and were then exposed to sunlight “physically disintegrated” in a phenomenon known as phototoxicity. The alarming study, and its [...]

News Round-Up: January 10, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Fracking on Shaky Ground: How Our Latest Fossil Fuel Addiction Is Linked to Earthquakes

Louisiana Continues Fight for Spill Cleanup

Japanese Government to Propose Age Limits on Nuclear Energy Facilities

Refusing to Come Clean: BP Denies Alleged Safety Violations Tied to Gulf Oil Spill

Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA), a national leader on energy and the environment, calls it “appalling.” And he’s right. In yet another “adding insult to injury” moment for Gulf Coast residents who continue to limp toward recovery, BP and other responsible parties are appealing multiple citations from the Interior Department alleging offshore safety violations in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. BP’s audacity in refusing to accept any scintilla [...]

News Round-Up: January 9, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Concern About Fracking’s Link to Earthquakes Isn’t Ridiculous

TIME: Anti-BP Protesters Make Cameo Appearance in Pro-BP Ad

As Fukushima Cleanup Begins, Long-term Impacts are Weighed

News Round-Up: January 6, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Confirmed: Fracking Caused Ohio Earthquakes

Oil Spill Cleanup Worker Files Lawsuit After Suffering Respiratory Failure

Nuclear Power and The Press: Getting It Right vs. Making A Splash

Time Magazine Dubs Fracking America’s “Biggest Environmental Issue” of 2011

Time Magazine got it right when it outed hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as the biggest environmental concern our nation is facing as we head into the new year. Why fracking? The world’s largest weekly news magazine, boasting a global circulation of 25 million, points to “the threats that shale gas drilling could pose to water supplies” and the fact that “natural gas produced by fracking may actually have a bigger [...]

News Round-Up: January 5, 2012

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Solar Panels Compete With Cheap Natural Gas

BP Ordered to Boost Safety After Norway Probe

Nuclear Awakening: Mothers First To Shed Food-Safety Complacency

High Marks for BP Oil Spill Documentary: “The Big Fix” Makes Top-10 List of Best Movies of 2011

Congratulations to co-directors (and Louisiana natives) Josh and Rebecca Tickell for the enormous and ongoing success of their oil spill documentary “The Big Fix.” The film – a masterful exposé of our nation’s worst environmental disaster – was just named one of the top 10 best “Hollywood South” films of 2011 by the Times-Picayune. The list, compiled by film critic Mike Scott, includes big-picture powerhouses like “Harry Potter and the [...]

News Round-Up: January 3, 2011

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Hydraulic Fracturing Implicated In Pollution of US Groundwater (Video)

BP Seeks Recovery of All Gulf Spill Damages, Costs From Halliburton

Details Emerge About Failures at Fukushima

Ohio Officials Halt Fracking Operations After “Suspicious” String of Earthquakes Hits Youngstown Area

More evidence rumbled in over the holiday weekend tying fracking operations to earthquakes. The most recent and largest tremor – in a “suspicious” string of 11 – to hit the Youngstown area since last March measured 4.0 on the Richter scale. The epicenter, according to a Jan. 1 New York Times report, is “a well that has been used for the disposal of millions of gallons of brine and other [...]

Fallout from Japan: “Radioactive Debris Island” the Size of California Nears Hawaii

The tsunami that engulfed mainland Japan last March sucked as much as 100 million tons of debris out into the Pacific Ocean. Experts fear that the “monstrous debris field” (in the words of one American oceanographer) contains radioactivity from multiple meltdowns at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant located 150 miles north of Tokyo. According to nuclear energy specialist Arnie Gunderson, the “radioactive debris island” – roughly the size of [...]

And Justice for All? Prosecutors Prepare First Criminal Charges Against BP Employees

With the federal trial set to begin in February to determine fault in the worst oil spill in U.S. history, legal maneuverings have reached fever pitch on the Gulf Coast. Federal prosecutors are reportedly preparing criminal charges that could put a handful of mid-level BP employees behind bars for their role in last year’s 200-million-gallon oil spill. Based on the enormous scope of the disaster and the egregious nature of [...]

News Round-Up: December 30, 2011

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Fracking Cracks the Public Consciousness in 2011

Feds: BP Engineers Lied About Gulf Drilling

Public Health Fallout From Japanese Quake

News Round-Up: December 29, 2011

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Athens County Speaks Out About Fracking

A Deeper Understanding of Deepwater Drilling and Energy Dependence

ECO-CRISIS: Seals Being Killed By Fukushima Radiation

News Round-Up: December 28, 2011

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Dangers of Fracking Still Becoming Clear

BP Ad Shows Protesters During National Shrimp Festival in Alabama

Hot Particles Bombarded U.S. West Coast, Contaminated Food, Worst Arriving

News Round-Up: Decemer 27, 2011

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Rick Perry Fracks Up, Denies Link to Groundwater Pollution

Shell Says Leak In Gulf Will Delay Work There

Announcement of “Cold Shutdown” of Fukushima Reactors Is Based On a Political Decision, Not Science

News Round-Up: December 26, 2011

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Rush to Extract Natural Gas Stirs Health Concerns

Cameron Loses Appeal to Scuttle BP Gulf Spill Trial Plan

New Nuclear Plants Face Public Backlash

News Round-Up: December 23, 2011

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Timing Is Right to Give the Gift of Clean Water

The FDA Thinks It's Totally Cool For Us To Eat Seafood 10,000 Times Over The Contamination Limit

Major Milestones Passed At The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

News Round-Up: December 22, 2011

A selection of today’s headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking and the BP oil spill to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Understanding the Possible Effects of Fracking

In Warning to Polluters, Brazil to Impose Record Fine on Chevron and Transocean

Japan Hopes to Jump-Start Nuclear Disarmament Talks With North Korea

Still Flushed from Major Oil Spill Cleanup in China, ConocoPhillips Gets Green Light to Drill in Alaska

There goes the neighborhood. America’s second-largest U.S. oil refiner, ConocoPhillips, is moving onto a beautiful 23,650-acre lot in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA) – a pristine area once described as “the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the United States.” It will soon be “undisturbed” no more. Conoco’s move represents the first time the NPRA – home to wolves, grizzly bears, wolverines, migratory birds and half a [...]