Today’s Essential Reads
FRACKING:
Shale Gas Is Not the Answer to Our Energy Problems – and Here’s Why
Shale gas extraction is controversial – not least for its record in the US of contaminating water supplies, a scandal graphically outlined in the documentary Gasland.
Camapigners Launch Camp Frack to Protest at Shale Gas Drilling in Banks
Protesters against shale gas drilling activities in Banks are setting up ‘Camp Frack’ this weekend to warn against the expansion of ‘hydraulic fracturing’ for shale gas.
British Columbia regulators need a better grasp of the environmental impacts of a vast new opportunity for natural gas development that’s emerging with shale gas drilling in the province, according to new reports from Pembina Institute.
Three women are facing charges after a protest at a fracking site in southern Alberta.
BP OIL SPILL:
NYT: BP Shortcuts Led to Gulf Oil Spill, Report Says
BP, running weeks behind schedule and tens of millions of dollars over budget in trying to complete its troubled Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, took many shortcuts that contributed to the disastrous blowout and oil spill there last year, federal investigators concluded in a report released on Wednesday.
Few people were surprised by the news that BP is being blamed for the oil spill disaster, especially the folks on Pensacola Beach who had to deal with the aftermath.
MSNBC: BP at Fault for 21 of 35 Factors in Gulf Spill, Panel Finds
Federal investigators on Wednesday heaped the lion’s share of blame for the country’s biggest oil spill on BP.
BP Cost-Cutting a Cause of Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, US Report Finds
A new report into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has explicitly found BP’s decisions to cut costs were a “contributing cause” of the disaster that killed 11 men last year.
RADIATION:
TEPCO Submits Blacked-Out Manual to Diet Committee
The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has submitted its accident manuals to a Diet committee with most of the contents blacked out.