Today’s Essential Reads
FRACKING:
Top Wyo. Oil-Gas Industry Regulator Resigns After Remarks About ‘Greed’ of People in Pavillion
Wyoming’s top regulator of oil and gas development has resigned after he remarked at a conference that greed and desire for compensation motivate people who assert that hydraulic fracturing has contaminated their groundwater.
Landowners Get to Renegotiate Fracking Leases
Thousands of upstate landowners will be allowed to renegotiate leases that permit natural-gas drilling on their property under an agreement announced Thursday between New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Chesapeake Energy Corp.
N.J. Assembly Panel Approves Bill to Ban Fracking in N.J.
An Assembly panel pushed back at Pennsylvania Thursday, approving a measure that would prevent hydraulic fracturing waste — better known as “fracking” from entering the Garden State.
Restaurant Industry Moves Against Gas Drilling
Restaurant industry opposition to the controversial gas-drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing is growing as increasing numbers of high-profile New York chefs, restaurateurs, food suppliers and industry executives have joined the effort to lobby Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the State Legislature and the State Department of Environmental Conservation to ban the process.
BP OIL SPILL:
Petitions Delivered To Federal Court For Keeping Corexit Maker in BP Lawsuit
A federal judge in New Orleans will accept materials through a deadline next week on whether Nalco, the maker of chemical dispersants used in the BP oil spill, can remain in litigation. Hundreds of signatures have been submitted to keep the chemical maker included. Grassroots organizers and environmental groups want Judge Carl Barbier to keep Nalco as a defendant. It produced the Corexit dispersant BP used to break up the oil in 2010. Medical bills are included in the multi-billion-dollar settlement BP reached last month. But coastal residents and others exposed to Corexit say it’s too soon to let its manufacturer off the hook. They say not enough is known about what Corexit has done to the environment. Darla Rooks says she was on the front line of the assault on the spill from her fishing operation in Barataria Bay.
Kevin Costner Wins Lawsuit Brought by Stephen Baldwin
A jury ruled on Thursday in favor of actor Kevin Costner in a lawsuit in which fellow actor Stephen Baldwin accused him of cheating in a multimillion-dollar deal to sell oil cleanup devices to BP Plc after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Gov. Bobby Jindal Signs Bill Directing Gulf Oil Spill Money to Coastal Restoration
Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed legislation that will direct money Louisiana receives from the Deepwater-Horizon-BP oil spill to coastal protection and restoration programs. Jindal’s office said late Thursday that he signed House Bill 838 by Rep. Simone Champagne, R-Jeanerette, one of the last bills passed in the waning hours of the legislative session that ended June 4. The bill became effective when Jindal signed it.
On the Trail of Oil-Munching Organisms
Two years ago today, BP’s Macondo well was in the midst of its 87-day spree of spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Tar balls and oil slicks were showing up on beaches from Texas to Florida.
RADIATION:
Fukushima Fishermen Return to Port With First Catch Since 3/11
Fishermen in this northeastern city set out on a trial fishing operation on June 14 in hopes of resuming their work after voluntarily refraining from going to sea following the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year.
