Today’s Essential Reads
FRACKING:
Dozens Gather in Kent to Protest Fracking Despite Snow, Cold (VIDEO)
More than 60 foes of fracking from as far away as Cleveland marched along snowy Kent sidewalks Saturday chanting: “O-H-I-O, hydro fracking’s got to go,” “No more earthquakes” and “You can’t drink money.”
Colorado Residents Ask Feds to Withdraw Lease Parcels to Go Up for Oil, Gas Auction
Scores of residents in Colorado’s North Fork Valley aren’t nearly as keen about oil and gas drilling as the wide-eyed Democrats and Republicans who talk about tapping America’s energy reserves.
In light of anti-fracking filmmaker Josh Fox’s arrest earlier this month, environmental activists at Ithaca College are bringing hydraulic fracturing back into mainstream debate.
Air Sampling Reveals High Emissions From Gas Field
When US government scientists began sampling the air from a tower north of Denver, Colorado, they expected urban smog — but not strong whiffs of what looked like natural gas. They eventually linked the mysterious pollution to a nearby natural-gas field, and their investigation has now produced the first hard evidence that the cleanest-burning fossil fuel might not be much better than coal when it comes to climate change.
BP OIL SPILL:
BP’s Big Apple Alligator Stunt Bites
The oil company’s lingering efforts to make amends for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill have embroiled it in an improbable series of tourist promotions that have raised questions about how compensation funds are being spent.
Transocean Asks Judge to Force BP Manager to Testify in Trial
Transocean Ltd., owner of the rig that exploded before the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history in 2010, sought to force a BP Plc manager to explain what occurred at the well prior to the blowout.
BP, Anadarko Should Be Held Liable Before Trial, U.S. Says
BP Plc (BP\), Transocean Ltd. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) should be found liable before trial for violations of federal pollution laws stemming from the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, lawyers for the U.S. argued today at a hearing in federal court in New Orleans.
Miami Herald: Don’t Let BP Fines Paid For Spill Disappear Into Federal Black Hole
Barrels of bile were spilled in weeks leading up to the Florida primary. But that’s just a clean-up on aisle three compared to the epic five million barrels of crude oil that paralyzed the Gulf Coast states a couple of years ago.
RADIATION:
Fukushima Radiation May Be Killing Off Alaskan Ringed Seals and Other Arctic Mammals
For many months now, Alaskan ringed seals, Pacific walruses, and various other arctic mammals have reportedly been turning up with a mystery disease that manifests itself in the form of oozing skin sores, patchy hair loss, and damaged organs, according to theAlaska Dispatch. And since the condition has already been ruled out as being caused by a virus or bacteria, researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Institute of Marine Science are currently investigating to see whether or not Fukushima radiation might have something to do with it.
