There are a few places that have really come to symbolize the folly that has been nuclear power in America in the decades since World War II. One of the more famous ones is the San Onofre plant in Southern California, built next to the Pacific Ocean and perilously close to a major fault line, in one of the nation’s more populated corners. What could go wrong? But then, poorly located plants...
Environmental Must-Reads – April 10, 2015
A selection of the latest headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking to the BP oil spill.
Nearly 5 years after BP, a new lethal rig explosion in the Gulf
It happened again. Just like so many of us predicted, and so many of us feared. Another oil rig has blown up in a massive fireball in the Gulf of Mexico, with lethal consequences for the workers at an offshore oil facility. This explosion — which comes in the midst of an ongoing debate on the after-effects of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe — took place off the coast of...
Environmental Must-Reads – March 5, 2015
A selection of the latest headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking to the BP oil spill.
Another La. oil spill, another case of lying
With America about to make a big decision on the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline, let’s revisit yet another recent major oil transportation fiasco, this time in my home state of Louisiana. As I mentioned here recently, Sunoco — the oil giant that is betting heavily on building new pipelines to accommodate America’s surge in oil and natural gas production — had to own up...
New La. oil spill is a danger warning on pipeline safety
The Big Oil folks who’ve been trying to cram a vast network of pipelines down the throats of the American people — including the massive Keystone XL project that would transport copious amounts of dirty tar sands oil from western Canada across the U.S. heartland to Gulf refineries, where a lot of it would be shipped abroad — have been preaching a gospel of safety. That sounds...
Environmental Must-Reads – August 6, 2014
A selection of the latest headlines and must-read articles on issues ranging from fracking to the BP oil spill.
Will California be where the fracking boom went to die?
They struck oil early Thursday in Southern California. OK, that’s not really accurate: What really happened is that oil struck the streets of the Los Angeles suburb of Glenside, thanks to a massive pipeline accident: The Los Angeles Fire Department says a ruptured oil pipe near the suburb of Glendale has spilled about 50,000 gallons of crude oil onto streets. According to the Fire...
With little fanfare, Texas oil spill is killing dolphins and birds, mucking up beaches
Are Americans becoming numb to oil spills? You have to wonder sometimes. Over the last couple of years, as domestic fossil fuel production has surged, so have the number of accidents — along pipelines and railroads, on offshore drilling platforms and in barge collisions. And sure, these mishaps and misadventures have received some media coverage — but not all that much. Maybe the...