News release: “Despite a federal ban on the use of diesel fuel in hydraulic fracturing without a permit, several oil and gas companies are exploiting a Safe Drinking Water Act loophole pushed through by Halliburton to frack with petroleum-based products containing even more dangerous toxic chemicals than diesel. For example, a drilling company in West Texas… Continue Reading
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Search Results for: fracking
Bank Heterogeneity and Capital Allocation: Evidence from “Fracking” Shocks
New York Fed: Matthew C. Plosser – “This paper empirically investigates banks’ investment allocations over the recent business cycle. I identify unsolicited deposit shocks resulting from unconventional energy development and estimate bank allocations of these deposits. In the pre-recession period, banks lend 38 percent of incremental deposits; however, during the downturn, banks favor liquid assets and lending… Continue Reading
Recent accident highlights how state fracking laws protect corporate trade secrets over public safety
Mariah Blake – Mother Jones: “On the morning of June 28, a fire broke out at a Halliburton fracking site in Monroe County, Ohio. As flames engulfed the area, trucks began exploding and thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals spilled into a tributary of the Ohio River, which supplies drinking water for millions of residents.… Continue Reading
Fitch – Fracking Water Supply Risk Would Fall On US Utilities
Fitch Ratings-New York-02 May 2014: “Despite more stringent state laws, water and sewer utilities must comply with EPA water regulations and would bear much of the financial burden if hydrofracking (fracking) operations lead to contamination of a water supply, Fitch Ratings says. This week the state of Michigan joined a growing list of states that… Continue Reading
Report – Fracking is depleting water supplies in America’s driest areas
The Guardian – Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent: “America’s oil and gas rush is depleting water supplies in the driest and most drought-prone areas of the country, from Texas to California, new research has found. Of the nearly 40,000 oil and gas wells drilled since 2011, three-quarters were located in areas where water is scarce, and 55% were in areas experiencing drought, the report by the Ceres investor… Continue Reading
Backgrounder – Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking)
Sergie, Mohammed Aly. Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking). Oct 2013. Council on Foreign Relations. “Geologists have known about vast reservoirs of natural gas and oil trapped in shale formations across the United States for decades, but extraction techniques weren’t available and the resources remained untapped. Shale didn’t factor into most serious analyses of U.S. energy prospects until the… Continue Reading
Vermont is first state to ban fracking – will others follow?
Follow up to previous postings on fracking, news that Vermont became the first state to ban the practice – Gov. Peter Shumlin: “This bill, [H. 464 – An act relating to hydraulic fracturing wells for natural gas and oil production], will ensure we do not inject chemicals into groundwater in a desperate pursuit for energy.… Continue Reading
NY AG Sues Feds For Failure to Study Fracking
News release: [On May 31, 2011] New York “Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced he was filing a lawsuit against the federal government for its failure to commit to a full environmental review of proposed regulations that would allow natural gas drilling including the potentially harmful fracking technique in the Delaware River Basin.… Continue Reading
Oil and Gas Companies Spill Millions of Gallons of Wastewater in Texas
“An exclusive Inside Climate News analysis found companies have spilled nearly 150 million gallons of toxic, highly saline wastewater in Texas over the last decade… Inside Climate News has conducted the first-ever public analysis of produced water spills in Texas, working from data provided in response to open records requests to the Railroad Commission. Over… Continue Reading
FracFocus
Jeremy Singer-Vine, Data is Plural – “Fracking fluids. Since launching in 2011, FracFocus has become the largest registry of hydraulic fracturing chemical disclosures in the US. The database, available to explore online and download in bulk, contains 210,000+ such disclosures from fracking operators; it details the location, timing, and water volume of each fracking job,… Continue Reading
Report Identifies PFAS Injected into at least 1,600 Oil and Gas Wells
Industry-Friendly State Disclosure Rules May Shield Far Broader Use. “Previously unpublicized information unearthed by Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) shows that since at least 2013, oil and gas companies have used more than 21 tons (43,000 pounds) of a class of extremely toxic and persistent chemicals known as PFAS in hydraulic fracturing of oil and… Continue Reading
‘Climate denial’ just made it into the dictionary. Wait, what?
Grist: “The world is on fire, and so is our vocabulary. Merriam-Webster added 640 new words to its online dictionary last week. The additions include swole (“extremely muscular”), new meanings for snowflake (someone who is “treated as unique or special” or “overly sensitive”) and, you guessed it, a whole batch of neologisms tied to the… Continue Reading
