News Round-Up: September 14, 2011

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Today’s Essential Reads

FRACKING:

Groups Solicit the UN to Recognize Fracking as a Human Rights Issue

This week Washington D.C.-based Food & Water Watch and its European program Food & Water Europe brought hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to the attention of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where UN observers are weighing in on Catarina De Albuquerque’s report on the human right to water and sanitation.

New Report Finds a Need to Improve Consideration of Health Effects in the NEPA Process

The National Research Council just released the pre-publication version of a new report entitled: “Improving Health in the United States:The Role of Health Impact Assessment.”

Residents Opposed to Fracking Meet in Cochrane

Residents from around Alberta gathered at the Cochrane RancheHouse Theatre on Sept. 10 to talk about the “dangers of fracking.”

Environmental Impact Deemed “Limited” For Potentially Explosive Shale Gas Pipeline Into Lower Manhattan

Last Friday, exactly one year after the massive natural gas pipeline blast that killed eight and leveled a San Bruno, California neighborhood, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) brought the controversial New Jersey-New York gas line one step closer to construction.

BP OIL SPILL:

Gulf Oil Rig Explosion, Spill Blamed on Poor Management Decisions

A key federal report blames poor management, key missteps and a faulty cement job by BP and others for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history and the deaths of 11 rig workers. The details, released Wednesday, were contained in the final report from an investigation team of the U.S. Coast Guard and the agency that regulates offshore drilling.

Release of Key BP Oil Spill Report Expected Soon

The results of a pivotal federal U.S. probe of last year’s massive BP oil spill could be released as early as Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter.

New Details About BP’s Macondo Well Continue to Leak Out

It’s rather amazing, yet almost a year and a half after BP’s Macondo well disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, new details continue to emerge that it appears the company has attempted to keep quiet. Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that a BP scientist identified a zone of gas that may have contributed to the explosion that engulfed the Deepwater Horizon rig and killed 11 men aboard.

Gulf Spill Blamed On Poor Management, Bad Cement Job, Other Missteps

“A key federal report blames poor management, key missteps and a faulty cement job by BP and others for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history and the deaths of 11 rig workers,” The Associated Press reports.

RADIATION:

Japan Plans Floating Wind Power for Fukushima Coast

Japan will join the race to develop floating wind turbines to use in deepwater off its tsunami-stricken northern Pacific coast as it rethinks energy sources after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

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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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