Today’s Essential Reads
FRACKING:
New Reason to Hold Off on Fracking
As New York state moves closer to the finalizing of regulations that would allow horizontal hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, there’s been an important development on the national level.
Millions of Barrels of Drilling Wastes Injected Below Akron-Canton Area
Over the last four years, enough yellow-brown, salty liquid has been injected thousands of feet under Ohio’s Portage County to fill railroad tank cars stretching for 63 miles.
Group Goes to Court for Fracking Information
An environmental group has resorted to court action in a bid to get information related to fracking from the department of minerals and energy (DMR).
Effects of Fracking Go Beyond Upstate N.Y.
State Sen. Thomas W. Libous recently expressed displeasure with other legislators, including a colleague from his own party, for offering opinions about hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.
BP OIL SPILL:
Groups Probe BP Compensation for Minorities, Poor
A coalition of groups has stopped in cities and towns on the Gulf Coast this week raising concerns about whether people of color and the poor have been fairly compensated from the BP oil spill.
U.S. Approves First Post-Spill Drilling Plan for BP
U.S. regulators on Friday approved BP’s new exploration plan, moving the company closer to drilling new wells in the lucrative deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico a year and a half after the biggest offshore oil disaster in U.S. history.
BP Clears Hurdle To Drill In Gulf While Oil Spill Liability Laws Remain Unchanged
The Obama administration is set to allow BP to resume exploratory drilling in the Gulf of Mexico roughly a year-and-a-half after the company oversaw the largest offshore spill in history — but without any changes to the laws that hold companies responsible for the economic damages that such spills cause.
Family Says Shark Victim Died Doing What He Loved
The avid outdoorsman and Texas A&M graduate was a marine systems engineer involved with capping the Macondo well after last year’s BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
RADIATION:
Effort to Crowdsource Radiation Information in Japan to Expand (VIDEO)
Following Japan’s earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 and the subsequent Fukushima Daiichi power plant meltdown, information about the affected areas and levels of nuclear contamination has been difficult to find.
