Today’s Essential Reads
FRACKING:
Highland Becomes 4th Sullivan Town to Ban Fracking
Add another Sullivan County town to those that have banned gas drilling. The Town of Highland on Tuesday became the fourth town in the county to ban high impact industrial uses such as the horizontal natural gas extraction method of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” Its Town Board voted 5-0 for a such a ban.
Group Thinks Fracking Not Worth Dangers
Lance Hall, of Coshocton, said he was brought up to protect his family, and that’s why he’s against hydraulic fracturing coming to Coshocton County and the state.
Avon Frack Fight Fuels Strong Local Reactions
The battle over natural gas drilling in nearby Avon has heightened worries in Ontario County and elsewhere as communities statewide struggle with the issue of horizontal drilling, high-volume hydraulic fracturing.
Can Fracking Pollute Water? Study Tries to Answer
A new study being done by the Department of Energy may provide some of the first solid answers to a controversial question: Can gas drilling fluids migrate and pose a threat to drinking water?
BP OIL SPILL:
U.S. to Announce Settlement with BP Over Texas City Refinery
U.S. workplace safety regulators plan to announce a settlement on Thursday with BP Plc’s U.S. refining subsidiary over safety violations found at the company’s Texas City, Texas, refinery in 2009, according to a statement issued Wednesday.
BP Halts Offshore Alaska Project
British oil firm suspends controversial plans for Liberty field owing to cost of meeting its new safety code.
Associations that represent recreational fishermen, divers and conservationists are beginning to make noise again over the federal government’s so-called idle iron policy.
The Long Shadow of the BP Oil Spill Keeps Killing Baby Birds
In Louisiana, experts say barrier islands are vanishing “like sugar in coffee.” That’s bad news for the waterfowl whose newly hatched chicks are being washed away.
RADIATION:
Fukushima vs. Chernobyl: How Have Animals Fared?
For a little bird, bee or butterfly trying to make it in the world, which is the worse place to land: Fukushima or Chernobyl? On the one hand, there’s the risk from the release of radioactive materials that occurred in Japan just over a year ago. On the other, there’s the threat of mutations from accumulated environmental contamination over the past quarter-century from the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine.
