Today’s Essential Reads
FRACKING:
What Texas’ Fracking Disclosure Law Does and Doesn’t Do
As Dallas debates how to regulate fracking within city limits, a new report sheds light on what exactly could be used to drill deep underground.
Blackpool Rocked: How Fracking Triggers Quakes
Hydraulic fracturing may cause more earthquakes than previously thought, a new study of US gas drilling fields suggests.
Fracking Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be
Damning evidence about the environmental consequences of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of shale gas continues to pile up. And the process is acquiring more enemies with big guns, the latest being the Sierra Club.
Research Needed on Drilling Effects
IN THE YEARS since Pennsylvania eagerly opened its doors to natural gas hydraulic fracking, debate over such industrial activity has mostly focused on its effects upon our underground water quality.
BP OIL SPILL:
Judge Sentences Man With Ties to BP Oil Spill
A man who admits he lied to federal investigators working BP’s oil spill case won’t serve time in prison.
Greens Want Action on Oil Dispersants
Environmentalists sued the EPA, claiming it lists a plethora of oil dispersants that can be used on an oil spill, but not the toxicity of the chemicals, nor whether they are safe to be used in specific bodies of water.
Claims Representative Meets with Local Officials
The administrator chosen to oversee the new oil spill claims process visited Mobile Wednesday.
DOJ: No Contempt of Court After Spill by Salazar
Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar should not be held in contempt of court for issuing a second moratorium on deep water drilling following BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a federal attorney argued on Wednesday.
RADIATION:
Fukushima and Hiroshima Are on Japan’s Mind
This week the Japanese media is talking about two things: an anniversary of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and the urgent need to commission as many units of nuclear power plants, suspended after the tragic events at the “Fukushima-1,” as possible. Despite the energy crisis, Japan has held mass demonstrations against nuclear power.