Shale gas is not a credible ‘new green message’
It's confusing as to how shale gas extraction offers the oil industry "a new green message", as it was suggested last week in an interview with Shell's outgoing chairman. Look a little closer at shale...
View ArticleCasey: Voluntary fracking chemical registry ‘not enough’
The release of a national online registry of hydraulic fracturing chemicals this week has received qualified praise but has not stemmed calls for more disclosure about the natural gas extraction...
View ArticleTexas Oil & Gas Accountability Project seeks more drilling oversight
The Texas Oil & Gas Accountability Project issued a report Thursday calling for the Environmental Protection Agency to oversee regulation of air emissions from oil and natural gas exploration and...
View ArticleIn Support of a Moratorium: Unprecedented Public Opposition to Fracking in...
How organized is the anti-fracking movement getting? Well, this week, activists delivered 30,000 public comments to regulators, all in opposition to the controversial natural-gas extraction process....
View ArticleN.Y. drilling regs may take all summer
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – The new head of New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation believes that gas drilling in the massive Marcellus Shale formation is the most daunting environmental issue the...
View ArticleFracking fears
Several states — notably Pennsylvania, New York, and Arkansas — are having big problems with a method of drilling for natural gas called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” Their experiences provide...
View ArticleNew Jersey wants to get tough on fracking
TRENTON, NJ – New Jersey is concerned about the impacts of natural gas development projects in neighboring states and is seeking tough regulations to project the water resources in the Delaware River...
View ArticleNew York and Texas Define the “Fracking Battleground” as the Political...
Two of the largest, most powerful electoral states have become the fiercest fracking battlegrounds in the nation – with a major citizen group in Texas demanding that industry regulators turn from...
View ArticleDemocratic report: carcinogens injected into wells
WASHINGTON (AP) – Millions of gallons of potentially hazardous chemicals and known carcinogens were injected into wells by leading oil and gas service companies from 2005-2009, a report by three House...
View ArticleChemicals Were Injected Into Wells, Report Says
WASHINGTON — 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...
View ArticleRecipe for Disaster: Fracking Fluids Exposed
Congressional Democrats just landed a knockout blow to the pro-fracking argument that the chemicals drilling companies inject into natural gas wells simply aren't that bad – and don't pose any real...
View ArticleState might sue feds over fracking study
New York state will sue the federal agency regulating gas drilling in the Delaware River corridor if it doesn't commit to a full environmental impact study of its proposed regulations within 30 days,...
View ArticleFrackers Take Aim at Louisiana’s Tuscaloosa Marine Shale
The fracking battle – being fought with growing ferocity in communities across the country – has arrived in my home state of Louisiana. According to the Associated Press, Devon Energy, a natural gas...
View ArticleNew Study Links Drinking Water Contamination to Fracking: Can Proponents...
It just got much more difficult for frackers and their supporters to keep a straight face in the sizzling national debate over whether the benefits of hydraulic fracturing outweigh the dangers. The...
View ArticleMy Water’s On Fire Tonight (The Fracking Song)
Here's a musical take on the dangers of Fracking:
View ArticleProtecting 9 Million New Yorkers from the Dangers of Fracking
New York's attorney general has taken the first step in turning back Exxon Mobil's plan to use "fracking" on up to 18,000 gas wells in New York City's watershed – an application of the highly...
View ArticlePreemptive Strike: Fracking Opponents Look to Ban the Practice Before It Starts
The arc of the quintessential fracking battle is still taking shape, but it's beginning to look like a recurring feature in the storyline may be the "ban" – a word drilling companies are loathe to even...
View ArticlePro-Fracking Arguments Fail to Grasp One Inconvenient Issue –– the Reality on...
The Wall Street Journal – owned by conservative gadfly Rupert Murdoch – ran an opinion piece over the weekend that showcases the untruths, convenient omissions and wildly unscientific cause-and-effect...
View ArticleThe Fracking Wars: New York’s Legendary Tap Water in the Cross Hairs
New York's tap water is legendary. It's envied around the world for its purity, taste and abundance. Every week, billions of gallons of fresh, clean water are delivered from large pristine upstate...
View ArticleToxic-Free Zone: One City’s Approach to Protecting Residents from Fracking
As New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) prepares to lift a ban that would re-open the Empire State to the controversial natural gas drilling process known as "fracking," one upstate city is taking a unique...
View ArticleDistorting the Facts: Oil and Gas Industry Pays Penn State $100,000 for...
We're all aware that money talks, but the degree to which pro-industry interests are distorting public information on fracking was in particularly high relief this week as natural gas companies are in...
View ArticleWith the Drinking Water of 15 Million Americans at Stake, Feds Side with...
Just in case there's anybody out there who still thinks our federal government has a shred of integrity following the debt-ceiling debacle, news from the fracking front will quickly disabuse any...
View ArticleThe Holy Grail: Drinking-water Contamination Confirmed in EPA Report...
Considering all the money oil and gas companies pay their PR strategists and crisis management gurus, industry officials should have known better than to proclaim with absolute certainty that...
View ArticleEarthquake Outbreak: Arkansas Bans Fracking Operations Inside...
As if radioactive wastewater, exploding wells and flammable tap water weren't bad enough, fracking has now been tied to another environmental threat – earthquakes, thousands of them. Geologists have...
View ArticleCaving In To Fackers: Feds Move to Dismiss NY Lawsuit Aimed at Protecting the...
In a brazen pro-industry legal maneuver, the U.S. government has obtained permission from a federal judge to move to dismiss a lawsuit in New York that represents the last line of defense in protecting...
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Epic Contamination: Fracking Could Foul the Ancient Roman Hot Springs of Bath
Julius Caesar is rolling over in his grave. Some 2,000 years ago, the Romans built a magnificent temple and bathing compound around Great Britain's only hot spring. To this day, the complex in the...
View ArticleThe Fracking of America: New Website Devoted Exclusively to Tracking Our Most...
Fracking represents the most urgent environmental threat the United States has faced in 30 years. It's a threat that demands our attention and a robust national debate. An informed public is imperative...
View ArticlePutting the Brakes on the Fracking Boom: Federal Panel Warns of “Excessive...
A federal committee has formalized in a highly critical report what many of us have been shouting about for years: Fracking will cause "excessive" damage to the environment if steps aren't immediately...
View ArticleFallout from the Fracking Zone: Natural Gas Drillers Bury Toxic Sludge on...
As fracking operations are exploding across the country, so is the promise of big money – in royalties and bonuses – for property owners who allow gas companies to drill on their land. Think (in...
View ArticleThe Drinking Water “Reeks of Chemicals”: EPA Ties Fracking to Severe...
There's something very wrong with the water in Pavillion, Wyoming. It reeks of chemicals. Local health officials warned residents not to drink it after the EPA found pollution in their wells. Some...
View ArticleOhio Officials Halt Fracking Operations After “Suspicious” String of...
More evidence rumbled in over the holiday weekend tying fracking operations to earthquakes. The most recent and largest tremor – in a "suspicious" string of 11 – to hit the Youngstown area since last...
View ArticleTime Magazine Dubs Fracking America’s “Biggest Environmental Issue” of 2011
Time Magazine got it right when it outed hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as the biggest environmental concern our nation is facing as we head into the new year. Why fracking? The world's largest...
View ArticleEngineering Expert Calls Fracking a “Chillingly Effective and Thorough...
Few people know fracking better than Paul Hetzler. He's an environmental engineering technician who for years worked for New York's Department for Environmental Conservation (DEC). Mr. Hetzler managed...
View ArticleFeds Pave Way for Fracking Industry to Perpetrate Biggest Land Grab in U.S....
Officials from Central New York Oil & Gas recently informed landowner Bob Swartz that the company plans to cut "a 50-foot-wide, 400-foot-long gash through an ancient stand of trees" in his front...
View ArticleWhat Are They Hiding? “Gasland” Filmmaker Handcuffed, Escorted Out of Public...
Why would House Republicans bar an Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker from last week's public hearing on hydraulic fracturing? Hmmmmmm. Could it be that they're hiding something? Nah, couldn't be –...
View ArticleDrought Dangers: Frackers in Colorado Will Have Plenty of Water But Farmers...
More upside down priorities from the western fracking front. In drought-struck Colorado, oil and gas companies will have plenty of water for their fracking operations this summer, but farmers may not...
View ArticleA Timid First Step: Obama’s Proposed Fracking Rules Don’t Go Nearly Far Enough
If there's anything we've learned in the last couple of years since the word "fracking" entered our lexicon, it's this: Natural gas drillers don't want you to know what they're up to. From the Oklahoma...
View ArticleMystery Illness and Mystery Smells: The Neighbors of America’s Fracking Boom...
Kay Allen is a nurse who deserves some answers. She works at a health clinic in Burgettstown, Pa. -- in the southwestern corner of the Keystone State where the rolling hills are now pockmarked with...
View Article“A New Right of Love”: A Pennsylvania Farmer’s Moving Anti-Fracking Eulogy To...
I've been reading a lot lately about everyday Americans getting fed up with fracking -- with the way that the big gas companies have been running roughshod over lush rolling hills and pristine farmland...
View Article“Fresh, frizzy…fracked”: What else must fracked Wyoming homeowners do to get...
Meet Louis Meeks -- a longtime landowner outside the picturesque rural community of Pavillion, Wyoming. The rolling hillsides here have hosted natural gas wells for decades, but the pace of activity...
View ArticleFracking for dollars: Articles about big paydays for mineral rights overlook...
Sometimes the most important part of a story is what it doesn't say. I was thinking that this week when I sat down to read another major story in the New York Times about hydraulic fracturing, or...
View ArticleNew York’s Gov. Cuomo needs to learn that you can’t frack your way out of the...
Your heart has to go out to the dairy farmers of upstate New York. They work long hours to bring staples of the American diet to your table every morning -- and yet it's just getting harder and harder...
View ArticleMineral royalties fraud: A new legal frontier
This week I saw a story out of New York State, where officials are in the process of debating whether to allow hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for natural gas in some areas whether thousands of...
View Article“The poison beneath us”: Big Oil’s toxic legacy grows to unthinkable proportions
I became an environmental lawyer because of the reckless way that Big Oil has been treating the American landscape for decades. My first big case was launched more than 20 years ago, after we learned...
View Article“The Sky Is Pink,” and how big oil and gas companies get to drill first,...
I read a lot of environmental headlines every day, but this one really caught my eye. It said, "After six decades of fracking, regulation considered." The story was out of California, but its essence...
View ArticleReason No. 317 to be alarmed about fracking: It’s hot outside!
It was Bob Dylan who famously said that you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. In the summer of 2012, you don't need a weatherman to know it's hot out there. Heck, just open your...
View ArticleBlinding us with pseudo-science: Tainted studies distort real fracking story
When it comes to science, the big money folks behind Big Oil and Gas -- and their ideological buddies on the Far Right -- have two very different strategies. When confronted with the many, many studies...
View Article“We’re drilling all over the place”: Why Americans have to protest fracking...
Remember when the election of Barack Obama was supposed to change everything on environmental policy? Some days that seems like it was a long time ago, doesn't it? To be sure, no administration could...
View ArticleThe people know the truth: Fracking just isn’t safe
This past week, the natural gas industry -- the people who've brought fracking to a community near you -- held a major convention in Philadelphia, not far from the Marcellus Shale region where some of...
View ArticleJindal leaves the polluted waters of Louisiana to test the political waters...
It's been a pretty stressful month down here in Louisiana. Folks in communities like Braithwaite over in Plaquemines Parish are still trying to dry out from Hurricane Isaac, which was the worst storm...
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