Today’s essential reads.
FRACKING:
EPA To Issue Guidance For Diesel In Frac Jobs
Federal regulators will soon clarify the rules for energy companies that inject diesel into the ground as part of their hydraulic fracturing operations, a top Obama administration official said today.
End Nears For Frack Water Releases In Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s top environmental regulator says he is confident that the natural gas industry is just weeks away from ending one of its more troubling environmental practices: the discharge of vast amounts of polluted brine into rivers used for drinking water.
EPA Releases New Greenhouse Gas Inventory For Natural Gas Production Operations
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just released its “Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2009.” One of the categories reviewed is “Natural Gas Systems,” which includes hundreds of thousands of wells, hundreds of processing facilities, and over a million miles of transmission and distribution pipelines.
End Nears For Frack Water Releases In Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s top environmental regulator says he is confident that the natural gas industry is just weeks away from ending one of its more troubling environmental practices: the discharge of vast amounts of polluted brine into rivers used for drinking water.
BP OIL SPILL:
Oil Spill: Did Politics Trump Science In The Response?
As oil gushed from BP’s ruined Deepwater Horizon drilling operation last summer, federal officials hastily approved all sorts of emergency measures, including major dredging projects aimed at protecting low-lying coastal areas and beaches with sand berms.
NWF: Oil Spill Data Kept Secret
Doug Inkley, a senior scientist with the National Wildlife Federation, is not a happy fellow these days, because the effects of the BP oil spill on wildlife along the Gulf Coast are his concern. He says the U.S. government is keeping under wraps vital data that he needs.
Mysterious Ills Plague Louisianans One Year After Spill
Jamie Simon worked on a barge in the oily waters for six months following the BP spill last year, cooking for the cleanup workers, washing their clothes and tidying up after them. One year later, the 32-year-old said she still suffers from a range of debilitating health problems, including racing heartbeat, vomiting, dizziness, ear infections, swollen throat, poor sight in one eye and memory loss.
Oyster Growers Say Post-Spill Assistance Is Inadequate
African American oystermen in Louisiana’s lower Plaquemines Parish, where beds are damaged, are a tenacious bunch and don’t intend to abandon their livelihoods and seek work elsewhere if they can help it. After a disastrous year since the spill, they’re getting assistance from the state but want BP to live up to a commitment to restore beds. And they hope that Gulf Coast Claims Facility paymaster Ken Feinberg will compensate them fairly for losses.
Poll: Large, National Majority Wants Oil Spill Fine Money Sent to Gulf Coast
An overwhelming majority of likely voters across the country and across the political spectrum support congressional action to direct oil spill fines to the Gulf Coast, according to survey results released Monday.
JAPAN NUCLEAR CRISIS:
25 Years On: Chernobyl Still Leaking Radiation
Ukraine marked the 25th anniversary on Tuesday of the world’s worst nuclear accident at its Chernobyl power plant as Japan pressed on with efforts to control the crisis at its Fukushima plant.
