Drive seeks to ban hydraulic fracturing in Denton city limits
Denton Record Chronicle | Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe
February 21, 2014
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Residents streamed into one of the party rooms Thursday night at Sweetwater Grill and Tavern, lining up to buy T-shirts, make donations and sign a petition to ban hydraulic fracturing in the city limits.
Organizers said they got about 200 signatures, or one-third of what they need to force an initiative in front of the Denton City Council.
Tagged with: fracking, texas, ban, denton
Denton Residents Propose Fracking Ban
Dallas Observer | Priscila Mosqueda
February 19, 2014
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A group of Denton residents launched an effort Tuesday to outlaw fracking within the city.
If the Denton Drilling Awareness Group succeeds in getting the ban on the ballot and if Dentonites pass the measure in November, Denton will become the first city in Texas to make fracking illegal. Cities in other states have already passed similar laws, but Denton would be the first with existing fracking permits to do so.
Tagged with: fracking, texas, ban, denton
Denton City Council Says It Must Allow Fracking Near Homes, so Homeowners Turn to Voters
Dallas Observer | Amy Silverstein
February 19, 2014
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Last fall, Eagleridge Energy won some permits to frack right next to a few Denton neighborhoods, despite a new city ordinance that was supposed to keep the company farther away. The city said sorry, it was powerless to stop Eagleridge, because the company had found an extremely clever loophole. So now, pissed-off homeowners are responding by basically telling the city "screw you" and trying to kick the company out themselves. Calling themselves the Denton Drilling Awareness Group, a group of homeowners just announced that they're trying to place a total ban on fracking within city limits on the ballot.
Tagged with: fracking, texas, ban, denton
Citizens of Denton, Texas Call For Fracking Ban
Denton Drilling Awareness Group and Earthworks
February 18, 2014
Denton, Texas, February 18 – The Denton Drilling Awareness Group (Denton DAG) today announced they are collecting signatures for a ballot initiative to ban hydraulic fracturing within city limits. If approved by voters, Denton would become the first major Texas city to ban fracking, and the first city in the country to ban fracking after permits had been previously granted.
Tagged with: fracking, texas, ban, denton
Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale
Weather Channel | Jim Morris, Lisa Song and David Hasemyer
February 18, 2014
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The Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas is the site of one of the biggest energy booms in America, with oil and gas wells sprouting at an unprecedented rate. But local residents fear for their health - not from the water, but from the air they breathe. Our eight-month investigation reveals the dangers that come with releasing a toxic soup of chemicals into the air and just how little the government of Texas knows - or wants to know - about it.
Tagged with: fracking, texas, air pollution, eagle ford shale
The Environmental Disaster That is the Gold Industry
Smithsonian Magazine | Alastair Bland
February 14, 2014
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A global campaign to boycott what activists are calling “dirty gold” gained its 100th official follower three days before Valentine’s Day.
The pledge was launched in 2004 by the environmental group Earthworks, which has asked retail companies not to carry gold that was produced through environmentally and socially destructive mining practices. Eight of the ten largest jewelry retailers in the United States have now made the pledge, including Tiffany & Co., Target and Helzberg Diamonds. The No Dirty Gold campaign is anchored in its “golden rules,” a set of criteria encouraging the metal mining industry to respect human rights and the natural environment.
Tagged with: mining, gold, no dirty gold, pebble mine
EPA Issues Final Guidance on Fracking When Injected Fluid Includes Diesel Fuels
Bloomberg BNA | Alan Kovski
February 14, 2014
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Feb. 11 --The Environmental Protection Agency released its final guidanceFeb. 11 on hydraulic fracturing when diesel fuels are included in the fracking fluid for an oil or natural gas well.
The guidance instructs federal and state regulators on the extra layer of permitting that will be needed if a company doesn't avoid using diesel fuels in the fluid. Industry officials have said they can avoid diesel fuels for fracking, but that will depend on how the agency handles the definition of “diesel fuels” in the guidance.
Tagged with: fracking, epa, diesel
Ask Umbra: What should I get my sweetie for Valentine’s Day?
Grist | Umbra Fisk
February 13, 2014
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Q. Valentine’s Day seems to have become a sustainability-conscious guy’s minefield. Flowers? Pesticides. Chocolate? Is it Fair Trade? Jewelry? Is it conflict-free? Were the precious metals extracted without wrecking the environment? If I want to give my wife something that she will always have (rather than an experience like a nice dinner out) how can I be sure that a piece of gold jewelry doesn’t bear a heavy environmental burden?
Tagged with: mining, gold, no dirty gold, valentine's day
Wendy Davis’ Opponents Say She’ll Kill Texas’ Oil Boom, but What Does Her Record Say?
Dallas Observer | Amy Silverstein
February 11, 2014
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We know that a Wendy Davis-governed Texas would probably be more into preserving natural resources than a Texas ruled by Greg Abbott, who has sued the EPA a modest 17 times. But in a state famous for its lax environmental regulations, how much tougher would Davis be?
Valentine’s Day: Go Green, From Dinner to Ringtones
Ecowatch | Nicole D'Alessandro
February 11, 2014
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Bursting with love for a special someone, but don’t want to give in to the marketing surrounding Valentine’s Day and all the disposal gifts that go along with it? Or looking for a unique, nature-inspired way to express your feelings? Then check out some of these tips.
Tagged with: mining, gold, no dirty gold, valentines day
US EPA issues guidelines for diesel fuel used in fracking fluid
Platts | Jim Magill
February 11, 2014
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In a long-anticipated move, the US Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday released guidelines for the use of diesel fuel in hydraulic fracturing fluid.
The guidelines bring the agency into compliance with the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the EPA said in a statement. That law, which limited the EPA's authority to regulate fracking under the Safe Drinking Water Act's underground injection control program, left the door open for the agency to regulate the use of diesel fuel in fracking.
Tagged with: fracking, epa, diesel
New EPA Fracking Diesel Guidance Step in Right Direction
Earthworks
February 11, 2014
Washington, D.C. — Today the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released long-awaited guidance (see below for links) describing how the oil and gas industry may use diesel fuel in the fluids used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking). When it takes effect sometime this year, this will be EPA’s first formal rule or guidance dealing with fracking’s threat to drinking water.
“Diesel and drinking water don't mix,” said Earthworks executive director Jennifer Krill. She continued, “Even the Cheney-era Congress recognized diesel’s hazard to drinking water. That’s why, even as they passed the Halliburton loophole to the Safe Drinking Water Act, Congress left the door open for this first-ever EPA oversight of fracking’s threat to drinking water.”
Tagged with: fracking, epa, regulation, water pollution, drinking water, diesel, guidance
100 jewelers say ‘no’ to dirty gold on Valentine’s Day
Earthworks' No Dirty Gold campaign
February 11, 2014
Feb 11, WASHINGTON, DC – Just in time for Valentine’s Day, over 100 of the world’s leading jewelry retailers– including 8 of the top 10 in the US– have committed to more responsible metals sourcing by signing the No Dirty Gold campaign’s Golden Rules.
“Dirty gold just isn’t romantic,” said Payal Sampat of Earthworks’ No Dirty Gold campaign. “Retailers don’t want consumers to associate gold jewelry with polluted rivers and child labor, and they are joining us in calling on the mining industry to clean up its act.”
Tagged with: mining, no dirty gold, jewelry retailers, golden rules, 2014, brilliant earth, beth gerstein, nunamta aulukestai, kimberly williams, valentine's day
Fracking With Diesel Gets EPA Standards Industry Fought
Bloomberg | Mark Drajem
February 11, 2014
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The Environmental Protection Agency issued measures for using diesel in hydraulic fracturing, setting standards it said could be adopted by states to govern a process that has spurred the boom in natural gas production.
While drillers say diesel has mostly been phased out of the process called fracking, they had sought to block the EPA’s criteria, saying it could lead to greater federal oversight and delays in getting permits. Environmentalists said the standards were long overdue, even as they urged the agency to take another step and ban any use of diesel in fracking.
Tagged with: fracking, epa, diesel
Valentine’s Day isn’t all it’s cracked up to be
Golden Gate Xpress | Madison Rutherford
February 10, 2014
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We’ve heard it all: Valentine’s Day is a commercial holiday, a Hallmark holiday, a day created by greeting card and chocolate companies to celebrate something that really should be manifested all year long.
It has suffered the same fate as Christmas; a day buried beneath so much consumerism, that it is no longer associated with its original meaning or purpose. Feb. 14 is a “holiday” that many of us, generally when we have no one to celebrate it with, have pondered the basis of its existence.
Tagged with: mining, gold, no dirty gold, jewelry retailers, valentine's day
Wells, Well-Being, and Julie Wilson
Ft. Worth Weekly | Jeff Prince
February 5, 2014
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The hiring of former Chesapeake Energy Corp. spokeswoman Julie H. Wilson to lead a health initiative in Fort Worth has many local people astounded and confused –– but certainly not tongue-tied. Wilson’s critics don’t mince words when describing their disdain for the woman who became the face of urban drilling in North Texas for the past seven years.
“Julie Wilson is the sorriest excuse for a human being I’ve ever met,” said Deborah Rogers, a former goat farmer and artisan cheesemaker who clashed with gas drillers in 2009 and later founded the nonprofit Energy Policy Forum, a consulting firm for those battling the industry. “She was a mediocrity who was put in a position of power, and she abused that position egregiously.”
Tagged with: fracking, public health, texas, chesapeake
Congress investigates EPA’s Texas “overreach”, ignores EPA & impacted communities
Earthworks
February 4, 2014
Washington, D.C. & Weatherford, TX – The House Science, Space and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on February 5th entitled “Examining the Science of EPA Overreach: A Case Study in Texas.” On the agenda: Region 6’s intervention to protect Parker County residents whose drinking water was polluted by fracking-enabled methane gas development.
In 2012 Senator James Inhofe asked the Environmental Protection Agency’s Inspector General to investigate Region 6’s intervention. Although the IG released its findings late last year, they were not invited to testify. The IG’s report concluded Region 6 was fully justified in acting to protect area residents from pollution linked to Range Resources’ gas drilling.
Tagged with: fracking, epa, texas, house science committee
Fracking in George Washington National Forest could threaten D.C. area drinking water
Washington Post | Robert McCartney
February 2, 2014
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The future cleanliness of the Washington region’s drinking water has unexpectedly become a central concern in the national debate over the controversial natural-gas drilling method known as “fracking.”
The gas industry is pushing to allow fracking in the George Washington National Forest, despite fears that it could threaten the cleanliness of the Potomac River. It’s the sole source of drinking water for more than 4 million people in our area.
It’s no surprise that environmental groups are pushing hard to ban fracking in the forest, which includes the Potomac’s headwaters in the Appalachian Mountains.
Tagged with: fracking, water, george washington national forest, dc
Group: Toxic chemical releases going unreported
San Antonio Express-News | Jennifer Hiller
January 30, 2014
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SAN ANTONIO — In the middle of a massive U.S. oil and gas boom, the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project says the release of thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals is going unreported in Texas and other states.
The organization, along with more than a dozen environmental and watchdog groups, is petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency to require sites such as gas plants, compressor stations and tank batteries report to the federal Toxic Release Inventory, which tracks the release or disposal of chemicals that can threaten health or the environment.
Tagged with: fracking, epa, texas, tri
Study: Close EPA emissions loophole for O&G
Wyoming Business Report | Mark Wilcox
January 30, 2014
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According to a new study, Wyoming is home to 14 oil and gas sites that emit more than 10,000 pounds of at least one toxic chemical annually, though only five of those exceeded the threshold in two separate years. Even so, the sites don’t have to report the emissions because of what the nonprofit conducting the study called “an arbitrary loophole” with the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Environmental Integrity Project detailed Wyoming emissions and said that the oil and gas industry is excluded from reporting to the public Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) managed by the EPA. The inventory was created in 1986 and in the 1990s the EPA re-evaluated included industries, again omitting the oil and gas industry.
Tagged with: fracking, epa, wyoming, tri
Officials in the swarm zone taking action after taking heat
E&E News | Mike Soraghan
January 27, 2014
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The persistent earthquakes rattling Azle, Texas, aren't the biggest ones to shake the Lone Star State. But they've triggered some of the biggest political tremors to hit the state's storied oil and gas agency, the Texas Railroad Commission.
The three-member elected body and the staff it oversees have found themselves scrambling to catch up with the public on the issue of man-made earthquakes linked to oil and gas activity.
After more than 800 people showed up at a town hall meeting on the earthquakes, commissioners agreed to hire an in-house seismologist. The commission is teaming up with the state geologist to study drilling-related tremors, and the Legislature is planning hearings about the quakes.
Tagged with: fracking, texas, earthquakes, railroad commission
Final EPA report is the latest in a series of blows to Alaska’s Pebble Mine
High Country News | Krista Langlois
January 25, 2014
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Last summer, the excavation of some of the world’s richest mineral deposits – and the degradation of some of the world's richest salmon habitat – seemed well within the grasp of global mining interests. But with the release of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's long-awaited environmental assessment on Jan. 15, the development of Pebble Mine in southwest Alaska's Bristol Bay slipped just a little bit further from reach – the latest and perhaps most significant in a series of defeats for the embattled project.
Tagged with: mining, gold, alaska, pebble mine, our bristol bay, salmon, copper
North Texas residents show up in Austin to voice concerns over spike in earthquakes
KXAN | Ignacio Garcia
January 21, 2014
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After dozens of earthquakes rattled homes in North Texas, some families came to Austin to air their concerns directly to the state's main energy regulator.
Earthquakes used to be uncommon in the region, but nearly 20 have hit the town of Azle in November alone. Many worry the earthquakes are connected to the hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, used in oil and gas drilling nearby.
Tagged with: fracking, texas, earthquakes, railroad commission
Texans angrily protest fracking after 30 earthquakes hit town
RT
January 21, 2014
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Dozens of residents from a rural Texas community traveled to the state capital on Tuesday to demand that regulators act immediately to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, amidst allegations it’s to blame for a spate of recent earthquakes.
The Azle, TX area north of Fort Worth has experienced no fewer than 30 earthquakes since November, and residents say it’s a result of increased fracking activity.
Tagged with: fracking, texas, earthquakes
Texas fracking regulators to quake-damaged community: suffer while we study
Earthworks
January 21, 2014
Austin/Azle, Jan 21 – Today 50 residents of the Azle/Reno area traveled to Austin to compel the Texas Railroad Commission to publicly declare how they were going to address the issue of fracking-related earthquakes. Thirty quakes have occurred in the area since fracking wastewater injection wells began.
Despite scientific authorities linking fracking wastewater injection wells to earthquakes, including the United States Geological Survey and the National Academies of Science, the Railroad Commission announced at the meeting that they would not take action to protect the public until after their seismologist had studied the issue in Texas.
Tagged with: fracking, texas, earthquakes, railroad commission
Azle resident taking earthquake concerns to Austin
Fox News | Chelsea Kretz
January 20, 2014
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Azle residents are taking their concerns about all the recent earthquakes to lawmakers in Austin.
There have been 30 earthquakes since November 1st. Most are centered around the Azle area, northwest of Fort Worth.
Tagged with: fracking, texas, texas railroad commission, earthquakes
Azle Residents Take Their Earthquake Concerns To Austin
CBS DFW
January 20, 2014
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Dozens of Azle residents are planning a trip to the state capitol to send a message to the Texas Railroad Commission.
Organizers have named the bus trip “Shake the Ground in Austin,” and they expect at least 50 people to show up for the regularly scheduled Texas Railroad Commission meeting Tuesday morning.
Tagged with: fracking, texas, earthquakes, railroad
DEQ: Mine tunnel near Smith tributary OK
Independent Record | Eve Byron
January 17, 2014
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The state will allow a Canadian company to tunnel down into the ground to explore for copper near a tributary of the famed Smith River north of White Sulphur Springs.
In a notice released Thursday, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality wrote that after reviewing the proposal by Tintina Alaska Exploration Company for the Black Butte Copper Project, the state believes the company can mitigate any negative impacts from the exploration work. That mitigation would be through “design, or enforceable controls or stipulations or both” imposed by DEQ or other governmental agencies.
Tagged with: mining, montana, smith river
Texas legislative panel to look at quakes, natural gas production
Star-Telegram | Jim Fuquay
January 17, 2014
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The chairman of the state House Energy Resources Committee has created a subcommittee on seismic activity to study whether there are links between a recent swarm of small earthquakes in North Texas and natural gas production.
Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Denton, will head the panel of four, and one of the members is state Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, whose District 61 includes Parker and Wise counties.
Tagged with: fracking, texas, earthquakes
New study shows Ortiz mine proposal is thirsty and dirty: could consume water equal to use of 7,800 New Mexicans, contribute to climate change, and drain acid into surrounding watershed in perpetuity
January 16, 2014
Santa Fe, New Mexico, January 16th, 2014. A new coalition of jewelers and conservation groups today released Public Risk, Private Reward: an analysis of the Ortiz Gold Mine proposal, revealing that Santa Fe Gold corporation’s proposed 1000+ foot deep open pit mine in the Ortiz Mountains would consume enough water to sustain thousands of households, and potentially endanger area water supplies by draining acidic runoff into groundwater in perpetuity.
Tagged with: mining, new mexico, dirty gold, jewelry retailers, groundwater, acid mine drainage, santa fe gold
Alaska Native Tribes, Jewelers, Investors, Commercial Fishermen and Conservation Groups Applaud EPA’s Final Study of Large-Scale Mining in Alaska’s Bristol Bay Watershed
Earthworks
January 15, 2014
Tagged with: mining, epa, bristol bay, alaska, pebble mine, salmon, northern dynasty
EPA says impact of Bristol Bay mine could be devastating
Cordova Times | Margaret Bauman
January 15, 2014
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A long-waiting final federal report on the Bristol Bay watershed says large-scale mining there could have potentially catastrophic effects on fishery resources.
The report, online at http://www.epa.gov/bristolbay, outlines a number of potential adverse results that could occur if the mine was developed and operated, including catastrophic damage to fishery habitat due to development, operation and accidents at such a large scale mine.
Tagged with: mining, bristol bay, alaska, pebble mine
Parker, Wise residents vow to confront state officials about quakes
Star-Telegram | Bill Miller
January 14, 2014
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Armed with the battle cry “Shake the earth in Austin!” residents of Parker and Wise counties on Monday vowed to pack the next meeting of the Texas Railroad Commission to demand answers about the earthquakes that have rattled their communities since November.
About 300 people turned out for the meeting in Azle’s Community Center, many saying they did not get good answers from Texas Railroad Commission officials at a meeting on Jan. 2.
Tagged with: fracking, texas, earthquakes, railroad commission
Anti-fracking activists, North Texas residents pack meeting regarding recent quakes
KDFW | Mark Norris
January 13, 2014
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Anti-fracking activists, armed with their own charts and studies, made their cases to homeowners in Azle and surrounding areas at a meeting Monday night.
There have been 30 earthquakes in North Texas in the last two months, most of which have affected the Reno-Azle area northwest of Fort Worth. A 2.2 magnitude quake struck the area Saturday, and a 3.1 rumbled through Monday morning.
Residents say they're tired of waiting for the state to take action.
Tagged with: fracking, texas, earthquakes, railroad commission
Pa. DEP seeks input on overhaul of drilling regulations
NPR | Katie Colaneri
January 13, 2014
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Five years into Pennsylvania’s shale gas boom, the state is overhauling environmental regulations for drillers and changing the way the industry operates above ground.
A public hearing Monday night in Williamsport, Lycoming County set drillers, who argued the rules would go too far, against environmentalists who say the Department of Environmental Protection did not go far enough.
Tagged with: fracking, regulation, pennslyvania
Fracking water issues keep bubbling to surface
Common Sense Canadian | Damien Gillis
January 6, 2014
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Despite the shale gas industry’s aggressive efforts to keep a lid on water use and contamination issues relating to its activities, troubling new evidence continues bubbling to the surface, making it increasingly difficult to deny such concerns.
Two big strikes against shale gas industry
Tagged with: fracking, epa, texas, clean water act
In Colorado, Both Sides Of The Fracking Debate Target Latino Support
FOX Latino | Andrew O'Reilly
January 3, 2014
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Driving north on Interstate 25 through Colorado, the Rocky Mountains rise on the left to over 14,000 feet as to the right the Great Plains collide with the foothills of North America’s largest mountain chain.
While the Rockies’ high peaks may dominate the views from the towns scattered along the Front Range – from major cities like Denver to more rural communities like Longmont – in recent years what is under these towns has become more important than what is above.
Tagged with: fracking, colorado, democracy
Coalbed methane bust leaves thousands of orphaned gas wells in Wyoming
High Country News | Irina Zhorov
January 1, 2014
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Marjorie and Bill West's ranch in Campbell County, Wyo., sprawls across 10,000 acres of hills, rocky outcrops and steep valleys. Their family has run cattle and planted wheat, barley and alfalfa here for 80 years. But when natural gas companies tapped underlying coalbeds, mostly leased from other mineral rights holders, in 1999, artesian wells dried up and cottonwoods drowned in produced water. Today, about 100 gas wells sit abandoned on the property, making it difficult to work the fields and damaging farm equipment. And though none have blown out, neighboring wells have; some still have gas pressure.
Tagged with: natural gas, wyoming, coal bed methane
Eagle Ford Shale: Breathe at Your Own Risk
DeSmogBlog | Julie Dermansky
December 30, 2013
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Fracking is in full swing in the Eagle Ford Shale region of southern Texas, home to the most productive oil field in the United States.
For Cynthia Dupnik, whose Karnes County home is in the center of the region, life is no longer serene. At night, she says the landscape is frighteningly apocalyptic, marked by the roaring flares spreading pollutants across the sky from oil and gas operations.
Tagged with: fracking, public health, texas, eagle ford shale, marathon oil
A Little Sanity from the IG…
Forth Worth Weekly
December 30, 2013
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As reported in last week’s cover story (“Range Wars,” Dec. 25, 2013), the Environmental Protection Agency in 2010 issued an emergency order to Range Resources Corp., finding that the company had contaminated the Parker County water wells of Steve Lipsky and others. That order was later rescinded by the EPA. But U.S. Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma asked the agency’s inspector general toinitiate an investigation into the action against Range, claiming it was politically motivated by the Obama administration.
Tagged with: fracking, epa, texas, range resources
The EPA Says It Was Right About Its Range Resources Investigation After All
Dallas Observer | Amy Silverstein
December 27, 2013
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When a natural gas company is accused of making an oopsie during fracking, the EPA's response has typically been to come down hard on the company at first but then back away. That was one of the the major plot points of the "Gasland" documentaries. Environmentalists and homeowners accuse the agency of being spineless in the face of industry pressure.
Tagged with: fracking, epa, texas, range resources
Environmental groups: White House throwing EPA under bus on fracking
Washington Examiner | Zach Colman
December 27, 2013
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This Dec. 6, 2012 aerial photo shows a natural gas well, right, drilled by Range Resources, but...
Environmental groups say the White House is siding with the natural gas industry over its own Environmental Protection Agency following a report this week from the EPA's internal watchdog about an investigation of potential groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Tagged with: fracking, epa, texas, range resources
EPA’s Fracking Probe of Range Resources Met Rules, Review Says
Businessweek | Mark Drajem
December 25, 2013
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency followed legal requirements in issuing an emergency order against Range Resources Corp. (RRC:US) for water contamination in Texas, the agency’s independent investigation arm said yesterday.
The Office of Inspector General said in a report the EPA has agreed to take a new look at whether dangerous levels of explosive methane or other toxins persist in the local homeowners’ water wells, as investigators turned aside complaints from Republicans that the agency over-reached.
Tagged with: fracking, epa, texas, range resources
Report justifies EPA decision on fracking despite agency’s bow to industry
RT
December 24, 2013
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A 2010 US Environmental Protection Agency order for a gas drilling company in Texas to clean its tainted water wells was justified, the agency’s inspector general has determined. The EPA rescinded the order in 2012 after the company protested.
Tagged with: fracking, epa, texas, range resources
Inspector General: EPA justified in intervention to protect drinking water from fracking-enabled pollution
December 24, 2013
Tagged with: fracking, epa, regulation, water pollution, texas, range resources, methane, parker county, inspector general, steve lipsky
ShaleTest Is Cruising
Ft. Worth Weekly | Gayle Reaves
December 18, 2013
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It felt like being a witness to history: watching Sharon Wilson learn how to use a FLIR camera to detect otherwise-invisible streams of toxic emissions from gas-drilling facilities. Gas company executives who have fought the veteran critic of their industry, in venues from South Texas to the floor of the U.S. Congress, might think of it as more of a nightmare — like seeing Sherlock Holmes getting a stronger magnifying glass.
Tagged with: fracking, air pollution, water contamination, shaletest
Comment Period on Drilling Regulations Offers Opportunity for Vital Input
Earthworks et. al.
December 16, 2013
Harrisburg, PA – Environmental groups welcomed Saturday’s news that the Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) proposed updates to Chapter 78 of the Oil and Gas Act were finally sent out for public comment. Though this was viewed as a positive step, the organizations emphasized the need to strengthen many of the vital regulations being proposed.
“Although our organizations believe there is much that needs to be changed in the proposed regulations, it was time DEP submit its regulatory plans for public scrutiny and comment,” said Thomas Au, State Conservation Chair of the Sierra Club.
Tagged with: fracking, oil and gas, pennsylvania
New oil boom lurks in Denver-Julesburg Basin
Denver Post | Mark Jaffe
December 16, 2013
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Denver-based Whiting Petroleum sold its Texas holdings for $816 million in July and said it would use the cash to "accelerate" development of Colorado's Niobrara shale.
"The one thing we don't have to worry about in the Niobrara is oil in place," James Brown, the company COO, told analysts in November. "There is a tremendous amount of oil in place."
Tagged with: fracking, colorado, niobrara shale
Oil and gas regulatory framework playing catch-up
Denver Post | Mark Jaffe
December 15, 2013
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Colorado regulators, in some cases pushed by grassroots groups and legislators, have enacted several new rules aimed at overseeing oil and gas drilling.
"When these booms come, the regulatory framework is always slow catching up," said Bruce Baizel, head of the Durango-based Oil and Gas Accountability Project.
Tagged with: fracking, regulation, air pollution, colorado
Did Dallas Just Ban Fracking?
Think Progress | Andrew Breiner
December 12, 2013
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The Dallas City Council voted Wednesday to require any gas wells to be placed at least 1,500 feet from homes, a move that the gas industry says might as well be a ban on drilling. Combined with the fact that the council would still have to approve any permit for a drilling site, factoring in neighborhood impact, fracking opponents are calling the ordinance a victory as well. A two-thirds council vote would be needed to alter the setback requirement in particular cases.
Tagged with: fracking, texas, ban, dallas
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