News Round-Up: August 30, 2011

Today’s Essential Reads

FRACKING:

Concert to Serve as Protest to Gas Drilling Efforts in Finger Lakes

Wineries, breweries, farmers and environmentalists in the Finger Lakes are planning a concert this weekend to persuade music fans to oppose planned energy industry expansion in the region.

Community Activists Fuming Over Air-quality Issues Stemming From Natural Gas Drilling

Increasingly, air quality is becoming almost as hot a topic in Colorado communities near natural gas drilling operations as hydraulic fracturing and the potential for water contamination.

Texas Floats Fracking Chemical Rules

Texas regulators have published draft rules requiring oil and gas companies to disclose chemicals in fluid used for hydraulic fracturing.

GarCo Gas Patch Dealing with Various Toxins in the Air

Increasingly, air quality is becoming almost as hot a topic in Colorado communities near natural gas drilling operations as hydraulic fracturing and the potential for water contamination.

BP OIL SPILL:

World’s Most Expensive Disasters

Throughout Earth’s history, most natural disasters have been weather-related or resulted from eruptions or shifting plates beneath the planet’s crust. Man-made disasters have also entered the fray in the form of wars, oil spills and nuclear meltdowns.

Coast Restoration After BP Spill On Agenda Today

The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force has met in Pensacola, New Orleans, Mobile, Galveston and will be in Biloxi today for the fifth and final meeting before releasing its strategy for restoring the Gulf a year after the oil spill.

Study: Some Oil Spill Dispersant Chemicals Linked to Cancer

As the oil gushed during the weeks and months following the devastating BP Oil Spill, crews scrambled to head with one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.

Claims Can Still Be Presented Against BP, Barbier Rules

Private parties suing over losses from the Deepwater Horizon explosion can continue litigating even if they haven’t presented claims to BP as the Oil Pollution Act requires, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier decided on Aug. 26.

RADIATION:

Why the Fukushima Disaster is Worse Than Chernobyl

Japan has been slow to admit the scale of the meltdown. But now the truth is coming out. David McNeill reports from Soma City