Today’s Essential Reads
FRACKING:
Fracking Materials Involved in Oklahoma Explosion, Fire
An explosion at a trucking company involved materials used in hydraulic fracturing, a fire official in Elk City said Sunday.
“Fracking,” or “hydraulic fracturing,” to extract natural gas from deep shale deposits, is being hailed as a solution to U.S. dependence on foreign oil, and proponents of the controversial method even affirm that it’s cleaner.
Fracking Hazards Obscured in Failure to Disclose Wells
Seeking to quell environmental concerns about the chemicals it shoots underground to extract oil and natural gas, Apache Corp. (APA) told shareholders in April that it disclosed information about “all the company’s U.S. hydraulic fracturing jobs” on a website last year.
Caroline to Host Public Hearing Before Vote on Fracking Ban
As New York state prepares to release its final statement of the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing, the Town of Caroline is nearing its own legal action on the hotly contested drilling method.
BP OIL SPILL:
BP Sued Over Deepwater Horizon Equipment Dispute
A Minneapolis-area company is seeking $13 million from BP Plc (NYSE: BP) for allegedly losing and damaging oil-skimming equipment it rented to clean up the Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal reports.
Protei Designs Sailing Robots to Clean the Sea
It is estimated that BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster spilled 205 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Local fishermen and other cleanup workers suffered from the toxic oil and carcinogenic dispersants, but at best only 3% of this oil was ever recovered. The absorbent booms were never designed for open water. When Cesar Harada heard about this disaster, he quit his dream job at MIT and moved to New Orleans to find a better way to clean up these spills. His inspiration combined ancient sailing technology with modern materials and robotics. He used crowd-funded kickstarter loan to hire some engineers and found Protei.org. Harada released the designs under an OpenSource Hardware (OSHW) license so that others can learn, refine and share solutions.
Toxic Legacy of Gulf Oil Spill
Fishermen affected by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico tell the ABC’s Brendan Trembath they are being forced to close their businesses as catches reveal “weird looking crab” and a falling supply.
BP Sells Carson Refinery To Tesoro
In a major announcement today, British energy group, BP plc
(NYSE:BP) (LON:BP) agreed to sell its Carson refinery in California, to US based Tesoro Corporation (NYSE:TSO) for $2.5 billion (2.02 billion Euros). According to the company, the sale will help it to focus its investment and operations on its three refineries in the northern United States.
RADIATION:
‘Fukushima Reactors Not Stable’ – Plant Ex-Boss
The reactors at crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant are not stable, says its former head. He urged for international expertise to be called in to make the site of one of world’s worst nuclear disasters safe.
