A monstrous cloud of accumulated methane—a potent greenhouse gas—is now hovering over a large portion of the western United States according to satellite imagery analyzed by NASA and reported by the Washington Post. Created by years of intentionally released and errantly leaked natural gas during fossil fuel drilling operations, the cloud — invisible to the…
It’s official. New York state will ban fracking. After years of lobbying and aggressive public protest by state residents to make permanent a short-term moratorium on the controversial oil and gas drilling practice, Gov. Andrew Cuomo cited harm to public health as the key reason for the decision to announce an all-out ban. “The potential…
Fossil fuel energy companies have spent over $7.6 million to defeat a measure that would ban fracking in California’s Santa Barbara County. Measure P, which was brought forth by the Santa Barbara County Water Guardians, would ban “high-intensity petroleum operations,” including fracking, acidizing and steam-injection methods. Among those donating to the committee against the measure,…
Fracking triggered hundreds of small earthquakes along a previously unmapped fault in eastern Ohio late last year, according to a new study to be published in the journal Seismological Research Letters. Looking at data from National Science Foundation seismographs located near fracking sites, scientists from Instrumental Software Technologies, Inc. (ISTI) and the Ohio Department of…
