News Round-Up: May 4, 2012

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Today’s Essential Reads

FRACKING:

New York’s Fracking Math Problems

It’s puzzling for some of us to reconcile the continuing rise of gasoline prices with the current boom in domestic oil and natural gas production. We were promised “drill baby drill” was the answer to cheap gas. But as economist Paul Krugman has pointed out, the emptiness of that promise is really no surprise — so too, the anemic response of employment from all that enhanced domestic production, at least at national and state levels.

Wastewater Jitters in New York

As I report in Friday’s Times, disposing of the waste produced by natural gas drilling will become a larger and more contentious issue if New York State gives the go-ahead to horizontal hydraulic fracturing, which uses millions of gallons of fluids per well to release gas from the Marcellus Shale.

Final Fracking Report Draws Criticism

The final fracking report “provides even more evidence” of how much work remains before North Carolina lawmakers can decide whether to legalize the controversial method of natural gas extraction, critics say.

NW Pa. Fracking Firm Lays Off 40 Over Low Prices

A northwestern Pennsylvania fracking operation has laid off 40 workers because low natural gas prices are slowing down drilling efforts.

BP OIL SPILL:

Ecocide: Crimes Against Nature and Humanity

On Sept. 30, 2011, a mock trial by judge and jury at the University of Colchester in England found two oil executives of Canada’s tar sands guilty of ecocide. The jury deliberated a mere 50 minutes before reaching its unanimous verdict. During the trial, the evidence supported the contention that development of the tar sands was the biggest crime against nature on the planet, exceeding even BP’s 2010 huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Smallest Seahorse in US Waters Might Get Endangered Protection

A species of seahorse that’s just an inch tall, the smallest in U.S. waters, appears to warrant endangered protection, the U.S. said Thursday in kicking off a year-long review process.

Horrible Injuries Blamed on BP Dispersant

Exposure to chemical dispersants BP used in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill left a commercial diver with seizures, unable to walk and going blind – and two members of his dive team committed suicide, the man claims in Harris County Court.

Local Gulf Shores, Alabama Seafood Chef Rob Bika Breaks Out in Lesions After Handling Contaminated Gulf Seafood

I’d like to introduce you all to a friend of mine Chef Rob Bika . He is also the son of the AOAC co founder Kimberly McCuiston .. Rob was working at a local Gulf Shores Restaurant as a Seafood Chef , however  recently his arms and hands started to break out in lesions . He made an appointment with Dr. Carol Williams who  is recognizing the toxic environment we are living in. She  is advising patients not to eat the seafood and checking patients for Vibrio.

RADIATION:

Japan’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Efforts Eroded By Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

The Fukushima crisis is eroding years of Japanese efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming, as power plants running on oil and natural gas fill the electricity gap left by now-shuttered nuclear reactors.

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Stuart H. Smith is an attorney based in New Orleans fighting major oil companies and other polluters.
Cooper Law Firm

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