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…
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.”
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Dr. James Hansen recently said that governments are acting as if they are oblivious to the fact that there is a limit on how much fossil fuel carbon we can put into the air…
One thing we know for certain is that Texas Sharon, Earthworks and the many people and groups nationwide expressing concerns about water and air quality and the future of their communities—are not going away…
Pennsylvania Residents Appeal to Gov. Cuomo to Vote ‘No’ on SRBC Water Pipeline Proposal
Food & Water Watch
05-10-2012
If the SRBC were to approve the proposal, a private corporation could evict dozens of residents of a Pennsylvania mobile home park and would sell millions of gallons of water a day to companies for the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing…
In typically grand fashion, satirical news source The Onion has skewered the rise of misleading PR bankrolled by the oil and gas industry to defend the dangerous practice of fracking…
Report: All Fracking Wastewater Disposal Methods Fail to Protect Public Health and Environment
Natural Resources Defense Council
05-09-2012
The five most common disposal options for fracking wastewater currently in use are: recycling for additional fracking, treatment and discharge to surface waters, underground injection, storage in open air pits, and spreading on roads for ice…
It was the underlying idealism of our successful experiment with self-government that made America an exemplary nation and the template for the world’s democracies. If American democracy is to survive, we clearly need to restore integrity and representative democracy…
ACTION: Stop Aqua America from Evicting Residents for Fracking Water Withdrawals
Food & Water Watch
05-07-2012
Residents of the Riverdale Mobile Home Park in Piatt Township, Pa. are facing evictions on June 1 to make way for an enormous water withdrawal facility. If Aqua gets its way, the company will be allowed to remove 3 million gallons per day…
Study: Natural Gas Development Linked to Wildlife Habitat Loss
Wildlife Conservation Society
05-07-2012
A study by the Wildlife Conservation Society documents that intense development of the two largest natural gas fields in the continental U.S. are driving away some wildlife from their traditional wintering grounds…
Report: New York Does Not Safely Monitor Treatment or Disposal of Fracking Wastewater
Environmental Advocates of New York
05-07-2012
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has failed to responsibly monitor the transport, treatment or disposal of waste from the state’s active gas wells, according to a new report released by Environmental Advocates of…
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempted hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in the Halliburton Loophole—except when diesel is used. Recent Congressional investigations revealed diesel use in fracking fluids remains widespread…
FrackCheckWV by Duane Nichols PA gas drilling yields $3.5 billion in 2011 revenues, $1.2 billion in WV …
Quakers Close PNC Bank Doors With Crime Scene Tape on 200 Mile Walk
Earth Quaker Action Team
05-05-2012
Two dozen Quakers and Lancaster, PA residents rallied in protest of PNC’s investment in mountaintop removal coal mining and fracking on May 5 at the PNC bank on 1356 Columbia Ave…
In contrast, legislators in Vermont showed no such equivocation when it comes to protecting our health and environment from fracking, as its house of representatives voted 103-36 today to ban the practice. The bill also bars the toxic…
The proposed rule does not require fracking companies to disclose chemicals before they are pumped into the ground—a critical measure that would give nearby communities time to test and monitor water supplies for any fracking-related water…
NAWC’s involvement in ALEC is not the only example of the private water industry’s entanglement with groups whose interests are seemingly at odds with the protection of drinking water resources. Two of the country’s biggest private…
NOVA’s Corunna cracker in Sarnia already plans to use ethane from the Marcellus shale basin. An existing Sunoco pipeline from the western Pennsylvania to Sarnia will transport 40,000 bbl/day of ethane to NOVA’s cracker, and an additional 10,000 bbl/day to the region for other plants…
