Today’s essential reads
FRACKING:
Power Shift: Where Youth Fights for Our Future
This weekend, the Woodstock of the environmental movement is on full display, not in a remote farm in New York, but deep in the heart of the nation’s capitol. That’s where more than 10,000 young environmental supporters poured into the mammoth Washington Convention Center for three days of meetings, speeches and rallies, part of the Power Shift 2011 conference.
New Jersey Seeks to Limit Number of Fracking Sites
New Jersey wants to limit the number of natural gas wells drilled in the Delaware River Basin when a moratorium is lifted on hydraulic fracturing, a drilling technique that involves injecting huge volumes of water to extract the fuel from shale.
Chemicals Were Injected Into Wells, Report Says
Oil and gas companies injected hundreds of millions of gallons of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells in more than 13 states from 2005 to 2009, according to an investigation by Congressional Democrats.
BP OIL SPILL:
Dealing with the present, worrying about the future
The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded nearly a year ago, with oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico for almost three months after the initial incident.
Daily news: BP attempts to influence independent research on Gulf of Mexico disaster
BP financed a $500m research project on the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, but intended to influence the results, according to an email obtained by Greenpeace UK that shows BP officials discussing how to influence the independent research on the consequences of the massive oil spill.
A Press-Register examination of response plans for the first deepwater drilling permits approved since the Gulf oil spill suggests companies continue to make unrealistic projections about spill-fighting abilities, and are drilling without ready access to basic spill response equipment that is required by law in Alaska and South America.
JAPAN NUCLEAR CRISIS:
Unlike BP, Japan’s crisis-hit TEPCO has little to sell
Like oil-leaking BP plc a year ago, disaster-whipped Tokyo Electric Power is mulling a fire sale of assets to help pay compensation claims against its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
ANALYSIS: Japan crisis could drag on beyond timetable
Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co faces hurdles in its plan to shut down its crippled nuclear reactors in six to nine months. The operation could be delayed or derailed altogether if unknown factors, like another powerful quake, are taken into account
Japan Discloses Data on Radioactive Water Release
The Japanese government Friday published a report on the discharge of more than 10,000 metric tons of low-level radioactive water from the quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, in a bid to allay concerns among neighboring countries that it was spreading contamination into the ocean.
