Today’s Essential Reads
FRACKING:
It’s Your Water They’re Talking About
When it comes to your diet, what’s more basic and important than clean water? It’s the one ingredient every one of us consumes and couldn’t live without.
Frackers Outbid Farmers for Water as Colorado Enters Drought
In what is starting out to be a very dry 2012 in Colorado—98% of Colorado is already in a drought—energy companies are outbidding farmers for unallocated water at the state’s water auctions.
Proposed Gas Lease Deal Could Avoid Fracking Moratorium
A preliminary lease agreement recently reached between a Tioga County landowners group and a Texas-based energy company could circumvent New York’s hold on shale gas drilling through the use of liquefied petroleum gas — rather than large volumes of water — to unlock natural gas trapped inside the Marcellus and Utica shale formations.
Quebec Bans Any Fracking Pending Studies
The province of Quebec has moved from a de facto ban on shale gas development to a “complete and total moratorium,” lamented Calgary oilpatch executive Michael Binnion on Tuesday, following news that a review on hydraulic fracturing won’t include any demonstrations in the province.
BP OIL SPILL:
Republican Hits Interior with Subpoena Over Drilling Ban
A top House Republican has issued his first subpoena to the Interior Department for documents that he contends could shed light on how the Obama administration justified its five-month deep-water drilling moratorium following the 2010 BP oil spill.
Rep. Hastings Subpoenas Interior’s Oil Spill Documents
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., subpoenaed the Interior Department Tuesday for documents related to the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, The Hill reports.
Baldwin County Commissioners Vote for Independent Lawsuit Against BP
Baldwin County commissioners voted unanimously today to file an independent lawsuit against BP PLC to cover an estimated $11.95 million in actual losses and any potential future losses resulting from the 2010 oil spill.
Total’s North Sea Leak Should Chill Investors
It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost two years since BP‘s (BP -2.72%) Deepwater Horizon oil spill and almost 25 years since Occidental Petroleum‘s (OXY -2.43%) Piper Alpha disaster — the last major accident in the North Sea, which killed 167 people — back in 1988. However, with these events still fresh in many people’s minds, Total‘s (TOT -1.61%) recent issues with its Elgin platform in the North Sea have taken on a new sense of urgency.
RADIATION:
Nukes and Tanning Beds: How the Same Risk Can Feel SO Different
Item: A study finds that between 1970 and 2009, melanoma skin cancer cases increased eight times in women aged 18-39, and four times in men, apparently from increasing use of tanning beds. Item: Many of the evacuees around Fukushima are being allowed to move back into their homes because the low level of radioactive contamination poses no health threat. What do these issues have in common? Two things; radiation, which in all its forms scares a lot of people, and choice, one of the most influential psychological characteristics that make radiation, or any risk, more scary or less.
