Global Frac News

Sinkhole: Now 372 feet diameter, Only 1500 feet from butane-filled cavern by Deborah Dupre, August 7, 2012, examiner Analysts’ reports further hint that Texas Brine Company’s cavern failed, but the butane cavern failing is today’s worst-case scenario. If a nearby butane-filled cavern fails, as it appears the brine cavern did, “it could cause an explosion felt ...

What Texas’ Fracking Disclosure Law Does and Doesn’t Do by Terrence Henry, August 7, 2012, State Impact Texas NPR Then there are the chemicals, as much as 55,000 pounds of them:…. If other wells in the Barnett Shale have required similar amounts, the chemical injection across the region may have approached 1 billion pounds. … The ...

Man in hospital, dog dead in Kelowna toxic gas incident by The Canadian Press, August 7, 2012 A Kelowna man remains in hospital, two other people were treated and one dog has died after toxic fumes seeped out at a cattle feeding operation in a rural area northeast of Kelowna. The incident happened just before 9 ...

Galef requesting lists of chemicals used in fracking by Andrea Prusik, August 6, 2012, Legislative Gazette Her constituents wondered why a list of chemicals was unavailable to the public if they truly were safe. To address concerns and educate herself and her constituents as much as possible, Galef wrote and sent letters to the CEOs of ...

Natural Gas is Unnatural by David Wimberly, Date Unknown, Alive Multinational corporations and governments told us natural gas was “the clean fuel, the healthy fuel.” … Infants exposed to home gas heating had an increased risk of developing asthma, with gas being a more significant risk than tobacco smoke (Epidemiology, 2000). Children living in homes with ...

A ride with a Bakken water trucker, Reporter Nicholas Kusnetz rides along with Mike Reynolds, who left his logging business in Washington State to work trucking water to the Bakken’s oil fields by Nicholas Kusnetz, August 6, 2012, High Country News

The Bakken oil play spurs a booming business in water by Nicholas Kusnetz, August 6, 2012, High Country News And while the world still runs on oil, with the rise of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, oil increasingly runs on water. Drillers inject 1 million to 3.5 million gallons of pressurized water into each well to shatter ...

Fracking, Legislation and the Court by Barry Rabe, August 6, 2012, Brookings But the Pennsylvania legislature and Governor Tom Corbett went off the deep end earlier this year by enacting Act 13, a sweeping statute covering many aspects of fracking governance. Among the most significant provisions was a remarkably detailed and complex set of measures designed ...

Hydraulic Fracturing Poses Substantial Water Pollution Risks, Analysts Say Press Release, PR Newswire, August 6, 2012 That conclusion, the analysts say, calls for regulators and others to consider additional mandatory steps to reduce the potential of drinking water contamination from salts and naturally occurring radioactive materials, such as uranium, radium and radon from the rapidly expanding ...

Water Pollution Risk Associated with Natural Gas Extraction from the Marcellus Shale by Daniel J. Rozell and Sheldon J. Reaven, August 2012, Article first published online: December 28, 2011, Society for Risk Analysis DOI: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2011.01757.x The study model identified five pathways of water contamination: transportation spills, well casing leaks, leaks through fractured rock, drilling site discharge, and ...

Keep fracking wastewater away from Westchester by Suzannah Glidden, August 6, 2012, The Journal News The Journal News reported that the Board of Legislators will propose legislation that would ban wastewater from hydrofracking — a controversial method for using chemicals, water and sand to extract natural gas from deep underground — from being treated in county- ...

Dryden, NY: A Year at the Center of Debate Over Fracking by Mark Scheerer, August 6, 2012, Public News Service – NY It’s been one year since the town board of Dryden, a rural community near Ithaca with a population of 14,000, passed a zoning ordinance prohibiting oil and gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing, so-called fracking. ...

Cartoon: Cuomo’s Adirondack fracking policy by Sam Guzik, August 6, 2012, Long Island Newsday [Refer also to: State to Buy 69,000 Acres in Adirondacks B.C. gets $10 million windfall to protect Flathead River Valley Scientists granted research window for Flathead Coalbed Methane mining  Reader questions Hutchinson drilling ]

Giant sinkhole danger zone expansion warning, human rights abused by Deborah Dupre, August 6, 2012, examiner The amount of harmful gases presently being released is being withheld, according to a Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) statement on the Assumption Parish Police Jury website dedicated to the Bayou Corne disaster. … “All of the pathologies that we ...

Bayou sinkhole 380 feet deep: Mandatory evacuation remains, anxiety increases by Deboarah Dupre, August 6, 2012, examiner Only 1,400 feet from the sinkhole there is a butane storage facility, according to Sheriff Mike Waguespack. “If something were to shear that well head, it would cause a very serious situation,” Waguespack said. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) ...

Fracking Debate Racks South Africa, Government to Soon Rule on Whether Moratorium Can Be Lifted, as Demand for Energy Increases by Devon Maylie, August 5, 2012, The Wall Street Journal Even if the moratorium is lifted, South Africa still must entice anxious investors. … Shell says there might not be as much gas as geologists have ...

Avella looks abroad to address fracking by  Phil Corso, August 5, 2012, Times Ledger “This isn’t just an issue for New York state. It affects the entire world,” Avella said of the heavily debated oil extraction procedure. … The Australian lawmaker said he chose to visit Avella because of his public opposition to the possibility of ...

Heatwave turns Americas waterways into rivers of death, Falling water levels are killing fish and harming exports by David Usborne, August 5, 2012, The Independent Army Corps of Engineers is dredging around the clock to try to keep barges from grounding as water levels dive. For scientists the impact of a long, hot summer that has ...

State to Buy 69,000 Acres in Adirondacks by The Associated Press, August 5, 2012, The New York Times LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) — New York State is acquiring the biggest chunk of land in the Adirondacks in more than a century. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Sunday the acquisition of 69,000 acres that he said would ...

Bayou Corne disaster: Extra security called, ‘Methane-bubble tsunami’ revisited by Deborah Dupre, August 5, 2012, examiner Meanwhile, officials are withholding monitoring data of the evacuated area and WDSU says residents want answers “to this bizarre problem.” “To be honest with you, I’m not real optimistic that we’re going to get definite answers real soon, Dennis Landry ...

Burning water is wasting water: We must develop another way by Todd L. Ambs, August 4, 2012, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel In short, our water supplies and energy production are on a collision course with each other. … We don’t need more dangerous, poorly monitored natural gas hydraulic “fracking” that can drain underground aquifers. … State public ...

Bayou officials fear giant sinkhole pipeline explosion, stop providing data by Deborah Dupre, August 4, 2012, examiner.com “I don’t believe a word they say about the environmental or human health risk of this mounting disaster,” New Orleans-based environmental attorney Stuart Smith stated Saturday, August 4, 2012. Officials say that the massive methane-leaking sinkhole in South Louisiana ...

Pipeline bent from sinkhole; La. 70 traffic to reroute by David J. Mitchell, August 4, 2012, River Parishes bureau Assumption Parish officials said Saturday they discovered that powerful underground forces unleashed by formation of an acre-sized swampland sinkhole had bent and shifted an adjacent 36-inch natural gas pipeline. … John Boudreaux, director of the parish Office ...

End of the anti-frack world near by Fred LeBrun, August 4, 2012, Times Union No new DEC monitoring or inspection staff members will be added for the first run of wells, and initially nothing will be done to regulate removing highly contaminated wastewater from well sites. It will be treated as “medical waste,” a lower legal level ...

Homes evacuated in Assumption amid slurry concerns by Associated Press, August 04, 2012, Canadian Business A brine facility mines salt from the Napoleonville dome and then stores hydrocarbons such as natural gas in the caverns that remain after mining is completed. Natural gas has been seeping up from Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou, which run below ...

Gas drilling on open space is a violation of public trust by Jim Wilson, August 3, 2012, The Daily Camera The recent report that Boulder County will be allowing Encana Oil and Gas to destroy open space lands in order to drill for gas utilizing the heavy industrial process called fracking for a mere few thousand dollars ...

Jindal signs emergency order to combat sink holes in Assumption Parish by Bayoubuzz, August 3, 2012 For several weeks, state, local and federal officials have been investigating reports of unexplained bubbling and tremors in the area. On Thursday, an area of wooded swamp located in this area began to subside, engulfing large trees and creating a ...

State sues over control of oil and gas regs, City of Longmont is charged with overstepping its authority by Peter Marcus, August 3, 2012, The Colorado Statesman The case is believed to be the first time the state has initiated a lawsuit against local government regarding oil and gas regulation. The Longmont ordinance itself is not ...

Stoney Creek residents accept gas in water by CBC News, Aug 3, 2012 On Wednesday, NDP leader Dominic Cardy called for a moratorium on drilling in the Stoney Creek area near Moncton. He said a lab found well water that was contaminated with methane, diesel and barium, and that it was unsafe for drinking. … Joe ...

Showdown looms over drilling by Michael Davidson, August 3, 2012, Boulder County Business Report The Colorado Oil and Natural Gas Conservation Commission on July 30 filed suit against the city of Longmont, claiming an ordinance recently passed by the city would “undermine” the state’s role in regulating the oil and gas industry. The complaint was filed ...

Bubbling Bayous, Tremors and “Slurry Area” Signs Of Failing Natural Gas Salt Storage Caverns? by leanweb, August 03 2012 Assumption Parish officials are ordering an immediate evacuation of the Bayou Corne area, effective immediately, parish Police Jury President Marty Triche said Friday evening. The “potential failiure” of an inactive and plugged Texas Brine Co. LLC salt-mining ...

Evacuations ordered near Assumption sinkhole by David J. Mitchell, August 3, 2012, River Parishes bureau For more than two months, federal, state and parish officials had been unable to pin down the source of the natural gas releases — despite a battery of tests on the oil, gas and brine production infrastructure in the area — ...

Homes evacuated near giant sink hole by WAFB, August 3, 2012 The Assumption Sheriff’s Office says 150 homes near a sinkhole in the Bayou Corne area have been evacuated. … All of the trees in the 200 square foot area were consumed by the slurry. Parish officials said residents in the Bayou Corne community reported a ...

Tracking life below Cayuga Lake’s waters, Former Cousteau cameraman documents water quality before gas drilling, invasive species spread by Andrew Casler, August 3, 2012, Ithaca Journal Before the potential onset of horizontal hydraulic fracturing and the further spread of invasive species, Brown is working to document underwater landscape and water quality in the Finger Lakes region. ...

Encana appoints head of Canadian operations by Reuters, August 2, 2012 Encana Corp, Canada’s largest natural gas producer, said on Wednesday that Michael McAllister will become president of the company’s Canadian division, six months after he took over the job on an acting basis. McAllister will manage the company’s extensive Canadian assets, including its shale and ...

Residents urged to test wells by Payton Willey Williston, August 2, 2012 The North Dakota Board of Water Well Contractors says taking samples from a new or existing well will confirm the water quality and commonly test for bacteria, nitrate and mineral content. Jeff Reiser, laboratory manager for Minnesota Valley Testing Laboratories, INC., said that although ...

Oil field waste spill lingers near San Diego by Mark Collette, August 2, 2012, Corpus Christi Caller Times A spill of oil field drilling mud on State Highway 44 in Jim Wells County took more than 24 hours to clean because the waste hauler was struggling to pay for the cleanup, a county environmental officer said. ...

Bruce Carson was the Godfather of Redford’s ‘National’ Energy Strategy by Keith Stewart, August 2, 2012, The Epoch Times And in Ottawa, the RCMP has announced that they are charging one of Prime Minister Harper’s former top advisors, Bruce Carson, with influence peddling. What hasn’t received much attention, however, was the key role that Bruce Carson ...

Raiding the homestead by Peter Mantius, August 2, 2012, The Corning Leader If, as expected, Gov. Andrew Cuomo allows the first permits to frack shale formations for natural gas in New York State this fall, unsuspecting homeowners throughout the Southern Tier will soon be receiving shocking letters from the state. Each letter will announce that a ...

Research Needed On Impacts Of Fracking by Knovel Corporation, August 2, 2012, whyknovel In the past few months, both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Pennsylvania state government have decided against funding research efforts into fracking’s health and environmental consequences. “Right now, the kind of comprehensive research that’s needed just hasn’t started,” Bernard Goldstein, professor ...

Lenape Resources Threatens Lawsuits Over New York Fracking Bans by Joshua, August 1, 201, News Inferno One natural gas drilling operation in New York is putting pressure on state regulators to act against localized bans and moratoriums on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) drilling. According to a CBS News report, the president of Lenape Resources, which operates numerous fracking ...

Water sources for fracking operations plentiful, monitored by Derek Clouthier, August 1, 2012, Cochrane Eagle The average human being can survive without water for approximately three days under normal conditions, which is why it’s understandable that many want to ensure that our H2O supply is not only safe but plentiful. … Cochrane Lake and Dogpound Creek ...

Don’t Frack with NZ postcard launched by Gareth Hughes, August 1, 2012, Green Party If you have been watching the news or following Parliament lately you will have seen the Green Party shed light on poor fracking practice and highlight the threat that fracking poses to local environments and communities. … To mark a new phase ...

A “War on Shale Gas”? by Brendan DeMelle, August 1, 2012, desmogblog One of the first people to raise questions about shale gas’s potential was Arthur Berman, a former Amoco geologist who, at the time, was a long-time contributing editor for an industry magazine called World Oil. But when Berman raised important questions about the ways ...

Fracking Truth to Fracking Power by Sandra Steingraber, August 1, 2012, Huffingtonpost The scientific analysis that is supposed to provide our Governor the facts and information he needs to make a crucial decision was crafted with the guidance of the gas industry, not of the state’s scientists. No wonder the draft document bears little resemblance to an ...

Cardy calls for moratorium on Stoney Creek drilling by CBC News, August 1, 2012 NDP leader Dominic Cardy is calling for a moratorium on drilling in the Stoney Creek area near Moncton. Recent lab tests by RPC of Fredericton found well water that was contaminated with methane, diesel and barium, according to Cardy, making it unsafe ...

Flaming faucets: Woman’s tap water is flammable as she blames nearby fracking by James Nye, August 1, 2012, Daily Mail UK In a video produced to highlight the unknown long-term consequences of fracking, Sherry Vargson lights a match and sets fire to water as it comes out of the faucet. The water has become flammable because ...

Cincinnati Becomes First Ohio City to Ban Fracking Injection Wells by ecowatch, August 1, 2012 Today, Cincinnati City Council voted unanimously to ban fracking injection well sites within its city limits, making Cincinnati the first city in Ohio to restrict toxic fracking wastewater from being pumped underground. … Fifty percent of the fracking wastewater being injected ...

Cover Story: The Gas Menagerie by Paul Hond, Summer Issue Columbia Magazine Immediately after Susan Kraham and her colleagues filed for an injunction against the zoning provision of Act 13, the industry pushed back. “The gas industry moved to intervene in the case and become a party,” says Kraham. “The judge said no. The head of the ...

Encana preparing to drill five new wells on Boulder County open space by John Fryar, July 31, 2012, Longmont Times-Call On March 1, Stewart told commissioners that the Parks and Open Space Department had received 47 notices of oil and gas companies’ intent to drill on county-owned open space properties this year.

Shale Development and Fracking Litigation Trends by Margaret Anne Hill, Mary Ann Mullaney and Heather L. Demirjian, July 31, 2012, The Legal Intelligencer Despite the intense scrutiny and focus on environmental issues relating to hydraulic fracturing in shale gas plays across the United States, the onslaught of anticipated litigation alleging impacts to human health or the ...

Alberta school headed by former Harper advisor Bruce Carson ran up $1.3 million operating tab by Mike De Souza, Postmedia News, July 31, 2012, Calgary Herald A federally-funded research partnership that actively promoted oil and gas companies reported spending more than $1.3 million on salaries, office expenses and travel in 2011, coinciding with the departure of ...

State’s ‘Medical Gag Rule’ Called An Illegal Gift to Gas Drillers by Erin McAuley, July 31, 2012, Court House News Service Kowtowing to natural gas-drilling companies, Pennsylvania enacted an unconstitutional “Medical Gag Rule” that prevents doctors from speaking to patients or the public about the health dangers of fracking, under the guise that such speech would ...

Driller to NY: Stop the local fracking bans or we’ll sue by Mary Esch, Associated Press, July 31, 2012, Star Gazette David Slottje, an Ithaca lawyer who helps towns draft moratoriums or bans on gas drilling, said in a letter to Martens on Tuesday that since two courts have upheld local bans, DEC doesn’t have to ...

Activists prepare for fracking fight by Sapa, July 31, 2012, Times Live The Treasure Karoo Action Group (TKAG) has set up a legal team to re-focus its legal strategy in preparation for an all-out confrontation to prevent fracking in the Karoo. The lobby group’s chairman Jonathan Deal said Cabinet was expected to make a decision in ...

Anti-fracking lobby announces new legal campaign to fight government over shale gas mining Press Release by Treasure Karoo Action Group, July 31, 2012 “We have been preparing for the moratorium to be lifted for a long time,” said Deal. “Now in the run up to the decision by government we are refocusing our efforts to present ...

Towns win a round in court against unfettered fracking by Daily News, Juy 31, 2012 TRY TO IMAGINE that you live in a nice suburban residential neighborhood and someone wants to open up an industrial chicken farm nearby — or maybe a fireworks factory or a steel mill. Surely, local zoning laws would not permit it, ...

NY judge lets Chevron’s Ecuador claim move forward by Larry Neumeister, Associated Press, July 31, 2012, ABC WBAY U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said some of the actions involving courts in Ecuador “unquestionably were tainted” before the award was announced in February 2011, but he said it was too soon to say the judgment ...

Judge in Chevron Case Declines to Reject Award by Bloomberg News, July 31, 2012, The New York Times The Chevron Corporation failed on Tuesday to persuade a federal judge in New York to find an $18.2 billion judgment by an Ecuadorean court unenforceable, but the judge left an injunction against the award in place pending further ...

Holding Frackers Accountable for Groundwater Pollution: An Analysis of Canada’s Liability Regimes for Hydraulic Fracturing by Adam Shedletzky, University of Toronto Law School for Environment Probe, July 30, 2012 Several cases of suspected groundwater contamination due to faulty well casings from fracking operations have been documented, and one landmark case concerning fracking for shallow coal bed ...

More Than 1,000 Businesses Demand a Fracking Ban in New York by Dinah DeWald, July 30, 2012, New Yorkers Against Fracking Businesses fear the water, soil and air contamination that accompany fracking. For operations like brewing, farming and wine-making, this contamination could lead to a significant decline in product quality and value. Farmers are also concerned ...

Doctor Sues Over Act 13 “Gag Rule” by Susan Phillips, July 30, 2012, State Impact Pennsylvania A panel of Commonwealth court judges recently ruled in a separate case that another doctor challenging the law did not have standing to bring such a suit. But a lawyer for Luzerne County nephrologist Alfonso Rodriquez says his client is in ...

Natural Gas Fracking Industry May Be Paying Off Scientists by Tim McDonnell, July 30, 2012, Climate Desk It’s called “Shale Works for US,” and it aims to spend millions on advertising and public events to sell Ohioans on the idea that fracking is a surefire way to yank the state out of recession. The campaign is ...

In Northeast Pennsylvania, Methane Migration Means Flammable Puddles And 30-Foot Geysers by Scott Detrow, July 30, 2012, State Impact Pennsylvania Last September, Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon declared to a Philadelphia energy conference that the problem of methane migrating through the ground near natural gas drilling sites had been fixed. “Problem identified. Problem solved,”…. Nearly a ...

State sues Longmont over oil and gas drilling regulations, Colorado Attorney General’s office objects to eight provisions, including residential drilling ban by Scott Rochat Longmont, July 30, 2012, Times-Call The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission sued the city of Longmont on Monday, saying the city’s new oil and gas rules trespassed into areas meant to ...

Water flows to money in drought-stricken drilling regions by Gayathri Vaidyanathan and Ellen M. Gilmer, July 30, 2012, E & E News The process of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, can use anywhere from 4.1 million gallons of water in the Barnett Shale basin around Fort Worth, Texas, to between 6 million and 12 ...

Fracking dust alert not shocking in Wyoming by Adam Voge, July 30, 2012, Casper Star-Tribune Two federal agencies released research last week highlighting dangerous levels of exposure to silica sand, a key component used in the oil and gas industry practice also known as fracking, at oil and gas well sites in five states. High exposure ...

Conditions on ground vary by The Times-Tribune, July 29, 2012 Unlike the governor and legislators, who claimed that the industry’s need for uniform regulations outweighed local interests, the court found that conditions on the ground across the commonwealth aren’t uniform. That’s why zoning exists in the first place – to accommodate a wide array of land ...

Big Oil and Gas industry writing down billions in U.S. shale gas assets by Robert Magyar, July 29, 2012, Examiner On Friday shale gas driller Encana Corporation, the largest natural gas company of Canada announced it had written down more than $1.7 billion in shale gas assets on its books, the majority from its U.S. shale ...

No to ‘fracking’ doesn’t mean no, Landowner refusal can’t stop drilling by Spencer Hunt, July 29, 2012, The Columbus Dispatch Steve Neeley estimates that he has spent more than $500,000 over the past 12 years to build a country estate in southern Portage County. When a Chesapeake Energy land man approached him months ago with an offer ...

Frackers follow tobacco’s lead in funding research, Industry trying to buy prestige of universities, while ties go unreported by Jim Efstathiou Jr., July 29, 2012, Bloomberg News What the study didn’t do was note that it was sponsored by gas drillers and led by an economist, now at the University of Wyoming, with a history of ...

Agencies appeal ruling on gas drilling by Associated Press, July 28, 2012 HARRISBURG — Two state agencies on Friday appealed a court ruling that threw out new limitations on the ability of municipalities to use zoning rules to control natural gas drilling activity. The Public Utility Commission and the Department of Environmental Protection, both controlled by ...

Judge foils gas drillers by Paul Carpenter, July 28, 2012, The Morning Call This past week’s defeat for the gas drillers, even if only temporary, should not come as a surprise. (When the Commonwealth Court ruling is appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which knows how to play ball with the powerful, the rabble probably will ...

5,000 People Unite in DC to Protest Fracking by Stefanie Spear, July 28, 2012, ecowatch “Just weeks ago in North Carolina, our legislature ripped up decades of groundwater protections for rural drinking water, in order to allow fracking and invite in dirty industry campaign dollars. So we add our voices to the national movement calling on ...

Local doctor sues over Pa. chemical gag rule, Dr. Alfonso Rodriguez says the state is preventing him from discussing fracking issues by Terrie Morgan-Besecker, July 28, 2012, Times Leader Dr. Alfonso Rodriguez claims the “medical gag rule” contained in Act 13, which amended the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act, could prohibit him from communicating crucial information ...

Can Universities Credibly Probe Gas Impacts When Industry Foots the Bill? by Andrew C. Revkin with essay by Lisa Wright, July 28, 2012, The New York Times I’m not a former C.I.A. director, the public editor, a noted academic, journalist, columnist or elected official. Nobody cares about my letters, comments and op-eds on the big issues ...

Exposed: Pennsylvania Act 13 Overturned by Supreme Court, Originally an ALEC Model Bill by Steve Horn, July 27, 2012, desmogblog On July 26, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled PA Act 13 unconstitutional. The bill would have stripped away local zoning laws, eliminated the legal concept of a Home Rule Charter, limited private property rights, and in ...

Investigation Of Contaminated Pavillion Water Presses On by Tristan Ahtone, July 27, 2012, Open Spaces Pavillion residents acknowledge it’s suspicious that representatives of Encana are even permitted to be part of an independent investigation of their own company. … This isn’t the last work group, but at this point, there are two major questions on people’s ...

Corbett Appeals Court Decision On New Marcellus Shale Law by David E. Hess, July 27, 2012, PA Environmental Daily Gov. Tom Corbett Friday announced the state has appealed to the state Supreme Court yesterday’s Commonwealth Court split decision which set aside key provisions of the state’s new Marcellus Shale law.

Day 4 – Pavillion, Wyoming by maxphillips, July 27, 2012, Jeremy Buckingham MLC Without any say in the matter he now finds himself surrounded by a gas field operated by gas company Encana. … The health of his family and neighbours has been impacted and he now has bottled water delivered by the gas company because ...

PA doctor challenges gas law’s “medical gag rule” in federal court by Donald Giliand, July 27, 2012, The Patriot-News A Luzerne County doctor has challenged Pennsylvania’s recently-passed natural gas law in federal court, claiming its “gag rule” for doctors treating patients affected by fracking fluid violates his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Dr. Alfonso Rodriguez is ...

Will Fracking Impact My Family? by Laura Grace Weldon, July 27, 2012, wired It’s not hard to find incidents around my hometown of older-style wells causing trouble. That includes homes with explosive levels of methane as well as a house explosion linked to inadequate cementing of well casings. Apparently such problems have occurred in both vertically ...

Oregon Man Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail For Collecting Rainwater on His Property by Kendra Alleyne, July 27, 2012, CNSNews A rural Oregon man was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail and over $1,500 in fines because he had three reservoirs on his property to collect and use rainwater. Gary Harrington of Eagle Point, ...

International opposition to fracking by Emma Lui, June 26, 2012, rabble.ca As people across Canada fight fracking in their communities, it is inspiring to know that there is a thriving international movement fighting fracking along side them. … As many examples indicate in the United States, Canada, England and elsewhere, the exploitation of shale gas has ...

Pipeline spill near Thorsby Alberta by Global News, July 26, 2012 “And that body cannot be the ERCB,” he said. “I think there should be a lot more public transparency around when these spills happen so that the public knows just how many spills Alberta suffers every single year.”

Court upholds Sinopec charges by Island Tides, July 26, 2012 On July 13, the Canadian Press reported that the Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that says a Chinese state-owned corporation should face charges in the deaths of two oilsands workers in Alberta. The company, Sinopec Shanghai Engineering, ...

Stunning Decision: PA Court Strikes Down Heart Of Act 13 That Preempts Local Zoning by John Hanger, July 26, 2012, johnhangerblogspot The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court issued what appears to be a 4-3 decision striking down the heart of Act 13–the provisions that preempted largely municipalities from conducting zoning of gas drilling. … This is a major victory ...

EPA says Dimock water safe, but Cabot still can’t drill there by Mike Soraghan, July 26, 2012, E&E News The action, however, does not change state officials’ case against Cabot Oil and Gas for contaminating water wells in the community with methane. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection still has not cleared Cabot to drill in ...

Pa. court strikes down new limits on municipal control over gas drilling; appeal expected by Marc Levy, July 26, 2012, Associated Press A Pennsylvania appellate court panel on Thursday struck down provisions in a new law regulating the state’s booming natural gas industry that opponents said would leave municipalities defenseless to protect homeowners, parks and schools ...

Texas Judge Rules ‘The Sky Belongs To Everyone’ by David Morris, July 26, 2012, Common Dreams The “public trust” doctrine is a legal principle derived from English Common Law. Traditionally it has applied to water resources. The waters of the state are deemed a public resource owned by and available to all citizens equally for the ...

Communities see Marcellus law as striking at heart of autonomy by Andrea Iglar, July 26, 2012, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Hundreds of local communities — many of them without natural gas drilling sites — have registered support for a lawsuit against the state’s Marcellus Shale law. Regardless of the status of Marcellus Shale drilling in a community, municipal ...

Consumer Groups and Lawmakers Call for Statewide Fracking Ban in Maryland by Food & Water Watch, July 26, 2012, ecowatch On July 25 Food & Water Watch and Delegate Shane Robinson (D-39) announced new legislation that would push for a statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing in Maryland. With the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reporting new sources ...

Breaking News Act 13 Struck Down by PA Commonwealth Court! by Coryn S. Wolk, July 26, 2012, Protectingourwaters This morning, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth court struck down some of the worst provisions of Act 13. This is a huge victory for Pennsylvania municipalities, residents, and anyone opposed to government favoring of industry over the health of its ...

Encana swings into red on impairment charge by Reuters, July 25, 2012, World Financial Post Encana Corp, which faces antitrust investigations following a Reuters report that it colluded with Chesapeake Energy Corp to lower the price of Michigan exploration lands, reported a second-quarter net loss on Wednesday as it wrote down assets because of declines in ...

Ewart: Encana remains quiet on Michigan allegations by Stephen Ewart, July 25, 2012, Calgary Herald “We do not expect an update to the ongoing investigation and we won’t be able to provide any further information on the issue other than what has already been released,” company spokesman Jay Averill informed the media. Here is what’s already ...

Contaminated Inquiry How a University of Texas Fracking Study Led by a Gas Industry Insider Spun the Facts and Misled the Public by Kevin Connor, Rob Galbraith and Ben Nelson, July 2012, public accountability initiative The University of Texas Energy Institute report, titled “Fact-Based Regulation for Environmental Protection in Shale Gas Development,” is a review of ...

EPA Fines Talisman Energy For Fracking Violations by Susan Philips, July 25, 2012, State Impact NPR Gas workers on a Marcellus Shale drill site. Talisman Energy will pay more than $62,000 in penalties for violations at 52 natural gas wells and compressor stations in Pennsylvania over the past three years. … “Compliance with these requirements is ...

US EPA finds remaining water safe in famous fracking town by Timothy Gardner, July 25, 2012, Reuters WASHINGTON, July 25 (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is discontinuing water deliveries to four homes in a rural Pennsylvania town that attracted national attention after residents complained that natural gas drilling polluted wells. Further testing showed no ...

EARTHQUAKES Second of Two Parts: Okla. officials ignore advice about injecting into faults by Mike Soraghan, July 25, 2012, E&E Seismologists have simple advice for oil and gas companies to avoid unleashing an earthquake — don’t inject millions of gallons of wastewater near active faults. That’s advice Oklahoma’s drilling industry and regulators have chosen to ignore. It’s ...

Abandoned well could be source of gas leak by Adrian Pittman, July 25, 2012, WBRZ.com BELLE ROSE – Assumption Parish officials believe an abandon well leaking natural gas could be what’s causing bubbles on Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou. A resident came across the abandoned well two days ago off La. 70, in a swamp near ...