Today’s Essential Reads
FRACKING:
Natural Gas Costs More Than You Think
Frank CariniNatural gas represents a greater proportion of electricity generation in Rhode Island than in any other state, accounting for about 97 percent of our electricity. Most of the natural gas we import is from production areas on the Gulf Coast and from natural gas storage sites in the Appalachian Basin.
Gas Price at 10-Year Low Dashes New York Dream of Riches
New York is unlikely to enjoy the energy boom that swept neighboring Pennsylvania because a collapse of natural gas prices has dulled the enthusiasm of companies waiting for regulators to permit drilling.
NY Enviros say LPG Fracking Needs Separate Environmental Study
A coalition of 15 environmental groups urged the New York Department of Environmental Conservation on Thursday to subject fracking with liquefied petroleum gas to the same environmental impact scrutiny it is giving to high-volume fracking with fresh water.
The supply of natural gas is growing so fast that analysts worry underground storage facilities could reach their limits by fall.
BP OIL SPILL:
Nearly Two Years Later, Oil Remains
State officials say oil continues to soil the Louisiana coast two years after the spill. But requests to BP and the Coast Guard asking for a long-term plan to monitor and clean up remaining oil oozing from marshes and buried in beachfronts have been rejected.
BP Chief Faces Pay Protest at Annual Meeting
Shareholders of BP criticized the company’s performance in the Gulf of Mexico and on executive pay and questioned its ambitions in Canada and Russia on Thursday at an annual general meeting briefly interrupted by shouts of demonstrators.
Gulf Coast Residents Say BP Oil Spill Changed Their Environmental Views
University of New Hampshire researchers have found that residents of Louisiana and Florida most acutely and directly affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster — the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history — said they have changed their views on other environmental issues as a result of the spill.
Protesters Target BP Expansion
Oil giant British Petroleum faced down an outraged vocal minority of activists and shareholders on Thursday, protesting plans to expand oil extraction efforts in Alberta’s oilsands.
RADIATION:
Japan’s Govt Deems 2 Reactors Safe To Restart
The Japanese government decided Friday that two nuclear reactors in western Japan are safe to restart, moving closer to bringing plants shut for regular maintenance back online for the first time since the Fukushima Daiichi accident in March last year.
