Last week, NPR took a deeper look at the natural gas boom in the U.S. The special series, “The Fracking Boom: Missing Answers,” questions what the gas boom is doing to the air and water in communities where fracking has become a household name…
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If the world can be seen in a grain of sand, watch out. As Wisconsinites are learning, there’s money (and misery) in sand—and if you’ve got the right kind, an oil company may soon be at your doorstep…
Ohio Department of Natural Resources Waters Down Fracking Regulations for Oil and Gas Drillers
Ohio Environmental Council
05-21-2012
Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s once promising energy plan has emerged from the Ohio Senate worse for wear. And part of the wear was requested by his own Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), according to news reports…
Welcome to Rocket Trike Diaries—a 10 week video tour of the 2011 “Ride for Renewables: No Tar Sands Oil On American Soil!” Join Renewable Rider Tom Weis as he pedals his rocket trike 2,150 miles through America’s heartland in support of landowners…
Seventy-Thousand People Ask Shell to Clean up Its Mess in Nigeria
Friends of the Earth International
05-21-2012
Almost one year has passed since the UN presented its report on Shell’s pollution of Ogoniland. But we are still waiting for a comprehensive plan from Shell to clean up its mess. The first step recommended by the UN was a U.S. $1 billion…
Last week, NPR took a deeper look at the natural gas boom in the U.S. The special series, “The Fracking Boom: Missing Answers,” questions what the gas boom is doing to the air and water in communities where fracking has become a household name…
Concerned Residents Hold Church Service at New Fracking Wastewater Injection Well Site
Ohio Fracktion
05-20-2012
“We are here because we refuse to be a sacrifice zone. Companies like BP and Chesapeake depend on treating Ohio as their personal dump to keep their toxic operations running. It’s time for all of us to stand up and say no to poisoned water, polluted air and man-made earthquakes.”
If the Michigan Public Service Commission approves the Line 6B expansion projects, the Great Lakes will be at the heart of the tar sands transportation debate, above Keystone XL and the Northern Gateway…
Transitioning to a Green Economy Holds the Answers to Today’s Critical Challenges
Worldwatch Institute
05-18-2012
Critical environmental issues are too often pushed aside in pursuit of short-sighted economic goals. But to effectively address the ongoing economic crisis, environmental concerns must take center stage…
Does Exposure to Natural Gas Wells Make People Sick? Proposed Health Study Can Find Out
Frack Check WV
05-18-2012
The study would look at detailed health histories of hundreds of thousands of people who live near the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation in which energy companies have already drilled about 5,000 natural gas wells…
“Fracking for gas is not the solution to our energy needs, it’s part of the problem,” said Paul Burns, executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG). “I’m proud that Vermont has a governor who understands the difference…
The Truth about Transporting Tar Sands through Ontario and Quebec for Export into the U.S.
Environmental Defence
05-17-2012
Getting raw tar sands oil through pipelines is like moving hot, liquid sandpaper that grinds and burns its way through a pipe, thus increasing the chance that weakened pipelines will rupture. In the U.S., the pipelines that have the longest…
New Bills Seek to Penalize Public Participation in Leasing and Drilling Decisions on Public Lands
Wilderness Society
05-17-2012
The bills (H.R. 4381, H.R. 4382, H.R. 4383, and H.R. 3973) minimize, eliminate and penalize public participation in leasing and drilling decisions on our public lands. H.R. 4383, for example, would impose a $5,000 penalty to any group or individual that challenges…
Chevron Faces ‘Irreparable Damage’ from Possible $18 Billion Ecuador Judgment
Amazon Defense Coalition
05-17-2012
Last year, New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli blasted the company for “doing grave reputational damage” to itself by pursuing more legal proceedings “that only delay the inevitable…it’s time to face reality…[t]he entire case is looming like a hammer over shareholders’ heads…
New Mexico’s failure to enforce its own rules highlights the need to close oil and gas loopholes in the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. OCD’s inadequate performance shows why citizens need to have federal standards…
Fox News and Fox Business star in the coal industry’s newest ad attacking the Obama administration. Relying heavily on footage from Fox, the ad promotes the Fox narrative that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is waging a “war on coal”…
Ohio Senate Wants to Gag Doctors to Protect Fracking Industry’s Bottom Line
Don't Frack Ohio
05-16-2012
On May 15 the Ohio State Senate approved legislation that would prevent physicians from sharing information about patients’ exposure to hydrofracking chemicals with their local health departments, first responders, or anyone else who might have been exposed…
Corexit is one of a number of toxic dispersants that are used to atomize the oil and force it down the water column so that it’s invisible to the eye. In this case, these dispersants were used in massive quantities, almost two million gallons so far…
Instead of focusing on new sources of clean energy and jobs created by American innovation, which will reduce our addiction to oil and enhance public health, API’s recent report envisions an America that drills more, despite having…
The projected price for Georgia’s Vogtle Double Reactor Project has jumped at least $900 million in just three months—and that’s just for starters. Will you pay for it? The future of new atomic power in the U.S. hangs in the balance…
No amount of regulation can make this fundamentally destructive and toxic drilling safe; most certainly not mere notice of where fracking is taking place or the carcinogenic chemicals being used…
Airgun noise is loud enough to mask whale calls over thousands of miles, destroying their capacity to communicate and breed; it can drive whales to abandon their habitat and cease foraging, and closer in it can cause hearing loss and death…
It’s bad enough that the Obama administration pawns publicly-owned coal for export, and seriously entertains approval of the tar sands pipeline. It’s as if the Obama administration wants to push climate pollution…
I suspect that if you asked people why they don’t use a bike for those short trips, you’d hear one answer more than any other: “I just don’t feel safe riding in traffic.” That’s understandable, because most of our roads and cities have been…
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, announced plans to launch an ambitious solar energy program capable of generating 41,000 megawatts of power over the next two decades to support one-third of electricity production by 2032…
Tar sands pipelines don’t only leak oil, they leak taxpayer money too. One wonders how tar sands producers got this generous break? Perhaps we should focus on cleaning up the Congress who continue to give this industry irrational exemptions…
More Than One Million People Urge White House to Stop Shell’s Arctic Drilling
Center for Biological Diversity
05-15-2012
More than 1 million people called on President Obama today to save the Arctic from oil drilling. Petitions with more than a million signatures were delivered to the White House, where citizens are gathering to ask the president…
Citizen-Led Ballot Initiative to Ban Fracking Begins in Michigan
Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan
05-15-2012
“It was clear in Vermont the dangers of fracking to our natural resources. In Vermont our natural resources are our number one priority, so it was not a difficult thing to prohibit fracking forever. It passed overwhelmingly,” said Klein…
New Report Reveals Scale of Steam Generator Failures at Nuclear Plant
Friends of the Earth
05-15-2012
If a steam-line accident were to occur, vibrationally induced tube damage at San Onofre could cause an inordinate amount of radioactivity to be released outside of the containment system, compromising public health and safety in one of the most heavily populated…
Shale Drilling Operations for Fracking Standards Developed by Industry Groups
Frack Check WV
05-15-2012
The Appalachian Shale Recommended Practices Group (ASRPG), a consortium of 11 of the Appalachian basin’s largest natural gas and oil producers, has prepared recommended standards and practices for exploration and production of natural gas…
The roadshow will visit nine cities, where organizers will meet with community members to discuss the impacts of fracking on Ohio, offer training on how to design strategic actions that move local campaigns against fracking forward…
