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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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…
The Organic Watergate: Advocates Condemn USDA’s Relationship with Corporate Agribusiness
Cornucopia Institute
05-18-2012
The organic community came together and actually asked the government, in order to maintain a level playing field and organic integrity, to regulate our industry. How many other industries have ever asked the federal government for tough regulations and enforcement?
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…
In case it somehow slipped off your calendar, today is Endangered Species Day. Last year we celebrated by launching a blog series called “Can’t Live Without ‘Em” to highlight critters small and large that contribute to keeping our planet healthy…
The impacts of the Deepwater Horizon are being felt in—you guessed it—Minnesota. White pelicans that winter in the Gulf of Mexico and have lived in an oiled Gulf have migrated to far away places such as Minnesota to lay eggs…
Regulations for chlorothalonil were set by EPA using studies based on ingesting the chemical, even though the agency considers chlorothalonil ingestion to be “slightly toxic to non-toxic” when ingested and “highly toxic or acutely toxic” when inhaled…
An Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis highlights the skewed priorities and gross inequities in federal spending under the nation’s most far-reaching food and farm legislation…
“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…
The plight of the Green River and the impacts of the proposed Flaming Gorge Pipeline were highlighted this week when American Rivers declared it #2 on its list of “most endangered rivers” in the U.S…
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…
NRDC Announces the Winners of the 2012 ‘Growing Green Awards’
Natural Resources Defense Council
05-17-2012
These vanguards are serving up a food system with generous portions of workplace justice, economic viability and ecological integrity. They are living proof that we can grow and eat food that is good for us, our communities and the planet…
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”…
Chemical Industry Challenged to Repudiate Unethical Members
Safer Chemicals Healthy Families
05-17-2012
Today Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families called on American Chemistry Council (ACC) President Cal Dooley to expel three flame retardant manufacturers whose deeply unethical practices were the subject of a four-part Chicago Tribune investigative series…
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…
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…
In Durban the world agreed to develop a new climate plan by 2015 to go into effect in 2020, but we need action now, and an agreement to phase down HFCs under the Montreal Protocol is the best strategy this year…
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…
A Guide for Choosing Safe and Effective Sunscreens this Summer
Environmental Working Group
05-16-2012
While sunscreens are an important part of a full sun-protection routine, they should not be used as the first or only line of defense. Seeking shade, avoiding the sun during peak hours and wearing sun-protective clothing…
New World Bank President Needs Infrastructure Strategy that Prioritizes the Poor
International Rivers
05-16-2012
The World Bank needs to start prioritizing projects that directly address the needs of the poor. Decentralized approaches have a better track record of reducing poverty than the top-down projects of the past…
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…
