Today’s Essential Reads
FRACKING:
ExxonMobil, Chevron Investors Call For Fracking Risk Disclosures
Chevron and ExxonMobil shareholders have filed proposals asking the companies to disclose risks to their operations and finances from hydraulic fracturing.
How Can We Cope with the Dirty Water from Fracking?
The nation’s oil and gas wells produce at least nine billion liters of contaminated water per day, according to an Argonne National Laboratory report. And that is an underestimate of the amount of brine, fracking fluid and other contaminated water that flows back up a well along with the natural gas or oil, because it is based on incomplete data from state governments gathered in 2007.
Frack-Friendly New Report Debunked
Earlier this month, the State University of New York at Buffalo released a report concluding that fracking is getting safer, as both industry and regulators are doing a better job. The study got plenty of coverage—the Associated Press, Forbes, WGRZ, Buffalo News—but in the week since it was released, it’s been attacked for a number of flaws.
Ohio Legislators Approve New Drilling Rules
Rules regulating oil and gas well construction, water handling, and the disclosure of chemicals used in drilling cleared final legislative hurdles Thursday before heading to Gov. John Kasich.
BP OIL SPILL:
Prosecutors: Ex-BP Engineer’s Bail Conditions Should Stand
A former BP engineer charged with destroying evidence sought for a U.S probe of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill shouldn’t be released from the travel restrictions imposed on him, the U.S. said.
Government To Test Capping Stack, Two Years After Gulf Oil Spill
The White House announced Thursday that the government would finally require the oil industry to test the capping stack officials hope to use to stop the next well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. A similar stack was used to stop the runaway BP well in 2010.
Seafood Industry Fighting for Life On Coast
Aching from an oil spill hangover and a decade of problems, Alabama’s commercial seafood industry is fighting for survival.
BP Oil Spill Effects on Minnesota Loons Under Study
Many would argue that the spring return of the common loon is one of the best parts of living in the lakes area. Minnesota’s state bird migrates north every spring from wintering grounds along the Gulf coast to breed in Minnesota.
RADIATION:
Utility Says It Underestimated Radiation Released in Japan
The amount of radioactive materials released in the first days of the Fukushima nuclear disaster was almost two and a half times the initial estimate by Japanese safety regulators, the operator of the crippled plant said in a report released on Thursday.
