Poisoning the Well: How the Feds Let Industry Pollute the Nation’s Underground Water Supply
Federal officials have given energy and mining companies permission to pollute aquifers in more than 1,500 places across the country, releasing toxic material into underground reservoirs that help supply more than half of the nation’s drinking water.
U.S. delays final fracking rules for federal lands
The U.S. government has delayed finalizing rules that expand its oversight of natural gas drilling on public lands because officials must evaluate a torrent of public comment on the proposals, the Obama administration said on Tuesday.
Colleges re-evaluate industry funding ties after shale report controversies
As scrutiny increases over the relationship between oil and gas industry funding and academic research, universities are likely to take a second look at their conflict-of-interest guidelines.
NYT Excerpt: Is Fracking A Blessing Or A Curse?
In his New York Times Magazine column this week, Adam Davidson writes about fracking, the new technique for extracting natural gas that has suddenly become a huge — and controversial — deal in this country.
If there is an uneasy equilibrium, right now, between environmentally concerned citizens and pro-fracking industrial groups, what will the political balance be like in a decade? What pressures will be on state legislatures and regulators if the projections are true and millions of workers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and maybe New York will owe their jobs to fracking. There will be trillions of dollars of new wealth. Will environmental and health concerns have any chance against that juggernaut?
Fracking in N.Y. poses dilemma for Gov. Cuomo
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who could be squaring off with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, is stuck between shale and a hard place on the question of whether to allow fracking in the state.
Regulators Under Fire for Keeping Fracking Pollution Test Results Under Wraps
Residents living in the shadow of fracking rigs say they’ve suffered from headaches, nosebleeds and other health effects since drilling began in their communities. Meanwhile, state agencies refuse to release the results of air and water pollution tests.
New Fracking Frontier Outside Illinois State Park ‘Makes People Question The Whole Deal’
Susan and Merlin Calhoun’s rural Illinois land is full of the same bluffs, canyons, waterfalls, bald eagles and barred owls that entice more than 2 million visitors to the adjacent Starved Rock State Park every year.
U.S. delays final fracking rules for federal lands
The U.S. government has delayed finalizing rules that expand its oversight of natural gas drilling on public lands because officials must evaluate a torrent of public comment on the proposals, the Obama administration said on Tuesday.
Newspapers Can Argue to Open Records in Fracking Suit
Advocates for greater openness for Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry are heartened by a state appeals court’s decision to allow two newspapers to press for the unsealing of records in a lawsuit brought against the industry by a western Pennsylvania couple.
Supporting Home Rule Over Fracking in NY: NRDC Files Brief on Behalf of Environmental and Non-Profit Orgs
Yesterday, NRDC filed an amicus, or “friend of the court,” brief in the appeals of the Dryden and Middlefield decisions rendered earlier this year. The brief—filed on behalf of Catskill Mountainkeeper; Delaware Riverkeeper Network; Gas Drilling Awareness for Cortland County; Otsego 2000; the Preservation League Of New York State; Riverkeeper; Theodore Gordon Flyfishers; Vestal Residents For Safe Energy; and NRDC itself—supports both the fracking bans enacted by the towns of Dryden and Middlefield and also the right of municipalities everywhere to use local control to determine if and where fracking occurs within their communities.
Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon launch anti-fracking video contest
Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon have launched the #DontFrackNY video contest and placed a full-page ad in Monday’s New York Times to amplify the call on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to ban fracking for gas in the state.
Nisource gas pipeline explodes near Charleston, West Virginia
A natural gas pipeline exploded in flames near Charleston, West Virginia, on Tuesday, setting nearby buildings on fire and injuring several people, authorities said.
Crosstex moving ahead with pipeline
Dallas-based Crosstex Energy LP is moving ahead with the second phase of a natural gas liquids pipeline project in Louisiana that will allow the partnership to move 50,000 additional barrels of liquids a day.
BP emails reveal the company underreported the 2010 Gulf spill
If you were around way back in 2010, you may remember that an oil platform owned by a certain company (it was called “BP”) exploded, killing 11 people and initiating a massive, months-long spill.
You may also remember that the company (again, BP, or “British Petroleum”) repeatedly seemed to underestimate how much oil was being spilled. See, for example, this article from May of that year, “BP’s estimate of spill rate is way low, engineer suggests.”
The engineer was right, and BP knew it.
Billions at stake in wake of BP oil spill in Gulf of Mexico
In the coming years, unprecedented billions will be spent on restoration in the Gulf of Mexico, a vital American ecosystem damaged by the most catastrophic oil spill in U.S. history.
Gulf oil spill: BP rig supervisors seek trial delay
Two BP rig supervisors have asked a federal judge to postpone their trial on manslaughter charges in the April 2010 deaths of 11 workers.
Long, uncertain path ahead for Gulf restoration after oil spill
In the coming years, unprecedented billions will be spent on restoration in the Gulf of Mexico, a vital American ecosystem damaged by the most catastrophic oil spill in U.S. history.
Jan. date to rule on BP $4.5B plea deal over spill
A federal judge will decide next month whether to accept a plea deal that calls for BP PLC to pay a record $4.5 billion in penalties for its role in a deadly 2010 rig explosion and the massive oil spill it triggered in the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil Spill Restoration
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Gulf of Mexico blue crabs and shrimp focus of Savannah, Ga., study
The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is the impetus behind a research project at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography in Savannah, Ga., that will analyze the effects of spilled oil on blue crabs and grass shrimp. The researchers will examine the species growth under various conditions to see if the genes that regulate molting may have been affected.
Oil spill costs could outweigh rewards: study
The financial costs of a worst-case scenario tanker spill off the north coast of British Columbia could outweigh the economic rewards of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline for the region, says a study by the UBC Fisheries Centre.
Judge temporarily halts Keystone XL pipeline in Texas
A Texas judge has temporarily stopped oil company TransCanada from building a pipeline designed to carry tar sands oil from Canada through eastern portions of the state to the Gulf Coast.
Michael Bishop, Keystone XL Opponent, Challenges Pipeline Work In Texas
A Texas judge has ordered TransCanada to temporarily halt work on a private property where it is building part of an oil pipeline designed to carry tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast, the latest legal battle to plague a project that has encountered numerous obstacles nationwide.
Texas judge halts TransCanada oil pipeline
A Texas judge has ordered TransCanada to temporarily halt work on a private property where it is building part of an oil pipeline designed to carry tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast, the latest legal battle to plague a project that has encountered numerous obstacles nationwide.
Northern Gateway Pipeline Hearing Exposes Gaps in Enbridge Evidence
It looks like islands aren’t the only thing Enbridge overlooks these days.
A report released today by ForestEthics Advocacy summarizes all of the information missing from Enbridge evidence brought before the Joint Review Panel in the Northern Gateway Pipeline hearing. The ongoing hearings, which began in September, address the proposed project’s economics, construction plans, operations, environmental impacts, risks to marine life and First Nations’ rights.
Gulf Coast recovery council meets today in Mobile
Federal and state officials will be in Mobile today for the initial meeting the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, charged with developing a plan to restore the environment and the economy of the five Gulf states following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.
Oil companies polluting aquifers with EPA’s blessing
Oil companies: They’re kind of like pet cats, it turns out. They don’t care what you want, they’re only out for themselves, and they love to bury their waste wherever they feel like it. And thanks to the Environmental Protection Agency, they’re able to bury it via aquifer injection at hundreds of sites across the country where the EPA says the water is not “reasonably expected” to be used for drinking.
Drought hits Colorado ranchers, and polluting oil drillers deliver another blow
As of last week, 95 percent of Colorado was under severe drought conditions.
Allocation of BP civil penalties subject of initial meeting of Gulf Coast recovery council
The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, a multi-state panel charged with helping the Gulf region recover from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, held its initial public meeting before an audience of about 500 today in Mobile.
Mandeville oil exec pleads guilty to state pollution charges
Lobdell Percy Brown III, of Mandeville, owner and chief executive officer of T & F Oil Co., on Tuesday pleaded guilty Tuesday in a Cameron Parish court to illegally discharging pollutants into state waters. Brown, his company and his brother, T & F field technician Carr Brown of Vidalia, La., were indicted in October 2011 by a Cameron Parish grand jury on charges stemming from illegal discharges of oil and chlorides — salt compounds — into state waters, along with five other spills that were unreported at sites in the Little Chenier oil field.
BP settlement administrators say missing documents delay payments
About half the claims for economic damages processed under a proposed settlement arising from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill are incomplete and can’t be paid without additional documentation, a court-appointed administrator reported Tuesday.
Judge delays trial for former BP exec charged in Gulf disaster case
A federal judge has postponed the trial of a former BP executive charged with obstruction of Congress stemming from statements he made about the amount of oil that was flowing from a blown-out well following the deadly 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster.
Texas Judge Asks If Bitumen is Crude Oil
News flash. A Texas judge just put a hold on construction of a portion of the southern section of the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in response to a landowner’s pushback against eminent domain claims on his land. Michael Bishop has been given a temporary restraining order to prevent pipeline work on his Nacogdoches County property. Interestingly, one of the cases hinges on a question NRDC has posed previously… Is bitumen, or tar sands oil, the same as crude oil. It seems like a silly question, but in fact, the industry has spoken out of both sides of its mouth on the issue.
Enbridge Pipeline Faces Scallop-Farmers Fight
A line of yellow buoys marking the boundaries of a scallop farm outside Prince Rupert, British Columbia presents the biggest challenge Enbridge Inc. (ENB) may face in its bid to connect Canada’s oil sands to Asia.
Robot ‘race’ to fix damaged Fukushima nuclear plant
Japanese company Mitsubishi has unveiled a radiation-resistant robot aimed at cleaning up the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.
TEPCO unable to locate source of leak in Fukushima reactor
The operator of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is grappling to locate the source of a leak of highly radioactive water in the crippled No. 2 reactor, and will continue trying to pinpoint the cause next week.
Experts fear more nuke reactors may be sited over active faults
More nuclear power plants could be found to be sited over active fault lines as the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) conducts safety reviews of facilities, experts say.
