The groups that run the national fracking chemical registry FracFocus announced plans yesterday to make the site easier to use and less prone to errors. EnergyWire. 27 February 2015.
Month: February 2015
Shale gas project encounters determined foes deep in Algerian Sahara
In a country of perpetual protest, the antifracking movement, which has been entirely peaceful, is being watched with special interest by the government, opposition parties and political analysts alike. New York Times. 26 February 2015.
Fracking, benzene, and public health: a California nightmare
Benzene is back — and scarily so.
Drawing on analyses that the Center for Biological Diversity conducted, Julie Cart, an investigative journalist for the Los Angeles Times, has reported that “significant concentrations” of benzene, a cancer-causing petroleum derivative, are in fracking waste liquid in California.
LA Times,February 25, 2015
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-fracking-20150211-story.html#page=1
Call for fracking ban to include coal under Forth
A coalition of anti-fracking groups has demanded the Scottish government extends its moratorium to other forms of unconventional gas extraction. Times of London, United Kingdom. 23 February 2015.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/scotland/article4362529.ece
Is Bolivia going to frack ‘Mother Earth?’
The momentum is building. Bolivia’s state oil and gas company YPFB announced in early 2013 it would begin studies to identify shale gas deposits, and in November that same year it gave a presentation in Santa Cruz on shale gas and the country’s probable reserves. The Guardian, Feb 23 2015
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2015/feb/23/bolivia-frack-mother-earth
University of Michigan report: Take time to weigh options on fracking
To frack or not to frack? Michigan is still sorting out the answer to that question. Crain’s Detroit Business, Michigan. 22 February 2015.
Fracking foes accuse industry of manipulating science
The oil and gas industry sponsors and spins research to shape the scientific debate over horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, according to a watchdog group’s analysis of more than 130 documents distributed to policymakers by industry representatives. Huffington Post, Feb 21 2015
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/21/fracking-research-deceive_n_6724162.html?utm_hp_ref=green
Miffed at the fracking ban, these New York towns hope Pennsylvania might adopt them
Some New York towns, desperate for economic development, are thinking about seceding from the state. Washington Post. 20 February 2015.
Fracking waste must be dealt with responsibly
Fracking waste should be deemed as hazardous and, thus, placed under a more restricted threshold of whether it can be dumped – and how. Poughkeepsie Journal, New York. 19 February 2015.
‘Scientific fact’ should decide fracking policy
The 2015 Edinburgh International Science Festival launches today with a call for a “new Enlightenment” – with policy decisions on controversial issues such as Scotland’s North Sea oil, fracking and climate change to be based on hard scientific fact rather than hype. Edinburgh Scotsman, United Kingdom. 19 February 2015.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/scientific-fact-should-decide-fracking-policy-1-3694934