Jonathan McIntoshs’ Remix Video is a critical and transformative work that constitutes a Fair Use in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. Source footage from Chevron TV ads, US Army ad, BBC News, Future Weapons, CSI and several other short clips recorded off television.
Source: YouTube (2009) Read More
The Cornell University Law School – 2011 Energy Conference (March 31-April 2, 2011) explored, among other topics, the legal issues associated with natural gas drilling and energy policy, different scientific perspectives on how clean and sustainable natural gas is, alternative clean energy sources, and the potential risks and benefits of shale gas development in Upstate New York.
Source: YouTube (2011) Read More
On March 15, 2011, Republicans in the House energy committee voted not once (archived), not twice, but three times (archived), against amendments (archived) recognizing that climate change is real, despite the broad scientific consensus that ‘climate change is happening (archived) and human beings are a major reason for it.” They then unanimously voted (archived) in favor of the Upton-Inhofe bill to repeal the EPA’s scientific endangerment finding on greenhouse pollution.
Source: Grist (2011) Read More
Kentucky ranks dead last in healthy behavior (archived), and 49th in overall well-being, ..More mountaintop removal will only make these problems with the health of Appalachian people even worse. Its hard to get worse than worst, but Hal Rogers is doing his darndest.
Source: Appalachian Voices (2011) Read More
Hydrofracking’s proposed a massive industrial transformation on a huge swath of rural Northeastern U.S. It has divided communities and sparked an intense public debate about science, economics, law making and enforcement. Under the Surface tells the story of the Marcellus Gas Rush and is written by Tom Wilber, a newspaper reporter who covered the environmental beat for Binghamton, N.Y.’s Press & Sun Bulletin. Recommended!
Source: Cornell University Press (2012) Read More
The tragedy of the commons is the concept that, in a system where individuals benefit from the use of a shared resource while the cost of that use is shared by all users, it is rational for individuals to overuse the resource, even though collectively this will likely lead to the depletion of the resource. The concept has been widely discussed and criticized in economics, ecology, and other sciences.
Source: Science (1968) Read More
Immediately upon the film’s release, Energy In Depth issued a paper claiming to “debunk” the film’s documentary evidence.
Source: DamascusCitizens.org (2010) Read More
Brad Johnson is a climate researcher-blogger at the Center for American Progress Action Fund . He blogs at the ThinkProgress Wonk Room on the climate crisis, energy policy and building a green economy.
Source: The Wonk Room (2011) Read More
Efforts by lawmakers and regulators to force the federal government to better police the natural gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” have been thwarted for the past 25 years, according to an exposé in the New York Times .
Source: Democracy Now! (2011) Read More
South Africa’s Cabinet endorsed the Department of Mineral Resources’ decision to declare a moratorium on natural-gas drilling in the Karoo region, halting plans by Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Europe ’s largest oil company.
Source: Bloomberg.com (2011) Read More
Americans depend on clean and abundant water. However, over the past decade, interpretations of Supreme Court rulings removed some critical waters from Federal protection, and caused confusion about which waters and wetlands are protected under the Clean Water Act.
Source: US EPA: Wetlands | Clean Water Act (1972) Read More
Email correspondence between William M. Foster, Auburn, NY and Fracking Resource Guide. The letter published in the Auburn Citizen on April 1, 2011 follows at the end of this post.
Source: Auburn Citizen (2011) Read More
Whether you are for it or against it, hydrofracking will significantly alter our way of life, and it’s possible that Gov. Andrew Cuomo will make the decision to the end the current moratorium on June 1. Write or phone — tell him no.
Source: Auburn pub.com (2011) Read More
In the absence of federal policies that are protective of child development and the ecology of the planet on which our children’s lives depend, we serve as our own regulatory agencies and departments of the interior…
Source: Da Capo Press (2011) Read More
FrackCheckWV.net was created as a platform for educating citizens about the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing and providing tools and guidance for effective citizen action and advocacy.
Source: Frack Check WV (2010) Read More
The lawyer leading a $33-million lawsuit against Encana, the Alberta government and the province’s energy regulator says the case speaks to broader environmental concerns across North America about fracking.
Source: Calgary Herald (2011) Read More
A webinar hosted by Cornell University’s Community and Regional Development Institute (CaRDI) (archived) on May 9, 2011 presented the work of a graduate student project in the Dept. of City and Regional Planning guided by Professor Susan Christopherson. (PDF).
Source: Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) (2011) Read More
Of all the lobbyists bringing their issues to Capitol Hill, the Groundwater Protection Council (archived) is one of the smaller players. I have to wonder, reading the rankings on Open Secrets, “Lobbying Spending Database: Environment, 2009”, why this groundwater organization spends less on its annual lobbying than “Fur Wraps the Hill” or the “Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy”? Groundwater is a hot button national issue, affecting both the urban and agricultural sectors.
Source: Frac Focus (2011) Read More
Broder’s piece goes on to offer a smokescreen of protest by the right, but according to Dusty Horwitt of the Environmental Working Group (archived), “An industry insider like John Deutch is completely unacceptable to lead this panel…It looks as if the Obama Administration has already reached the conclusion that fracking is safe.”
Source: NYTimes.com: Green | A Blog About the Environment (2011) Read More
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office announces a public face-to-face meeting of the SAB Panel (archived) to conduct an independent review of EPA’s Draft Hydraulic Fracturing Study Plan.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (2011) Read More
A federal proposal laying out new standards for a controversial natural-gas drilling practice called hydraulic fracturing likely won’t be issued until after the 2012 elections…the timing of the standards would take that hot-button issue off the table.
Source: The Hill | E2Wire - The Hill's Energy & Environment Blog (2011) Read More
Not long ago scientists thought that the placenta shielded cord blood — and the developing baby — from most chemicals and pollutants in the environment. But now we know that at this critical time when organs, vessels, membranes and systems are knit together from single cells to finished form in a span of weeks, the umbilical cord carries not only the building blocks of life, but also a steady stream of industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides that cross the placenta as readily as residues from cigarettes and alcohol.
Source: Environmental Working Group (EWG) (2005) Read More
Sens. Tony Avella, D-Whitestone, Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, and Joseph Addabbo, D-Queens, introduced a package of bills April 11 that includes three bills for tighter regulations and transparency for oil and gas drilling and a bill by Avella to ban hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, in New York State.
Source: New York State Senate | Liz Krueger (2011) Read More
Change.org, the website that allows users to create petitions for social change, received a legal threat from Peabody Energy after Coal Kills Kids (CKK) — a group that partnered with the Yes Men to unveil a faux Peabody charity initiative earlier this week (archived) — continued the hoax with a mock petition.
Source: San Francisco Bay Guardian Online (SFBG) (2011) Read More
Do you know that pediatric cancer is the leading disease killer of children in the United States ? That 35 children are diagnosed with cancer in the US every day? Do you know that, according to the National Cancer Institute, pediatric cancer as a whole received only $200 million for research in 2009?
Source: Mira's Movement (2009) Read More
A Systems Approach to Energy Transitions: Presentations from the Conference held on March 30-31, 2011 in Watkins Glen, NY.
Source: Cornell | Systems Approach to Energy Transitions (2011) Read More
According to this NY1/YNN-Marist Poll, New Yorkers divide on the issue. 41% oppose hydrofracking while 38% support it. A notable 21% are unsure. Similar proportions of registered voters statewide share these views.
Source: Home of the Marist Poll: Pebbles and Pundits (2011) Read More
Stop Fracking Ontario is a web project to inform and promote activism against fracking in Ontario, in the surrounding region, and elsewhere.
Source: Fracking Canada (2011) Read More
For the first time, a scientific study, has linked natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing with a pattern of drinking water contamination so severe that some faucets can be lit on fire.
Source: OnEarth Magazine (2011) Read More
Numerous complainants petitioned the USA government to get the EPA to review the earlier decision on hydraulic fracking. One of them, from Neil Zusman, Ithaca, NY, is particularly poignant: I have read widely on this topic and it is of personal interest to me. I am not a scientist. I observe the events along the historical timeline that includes civil rights, anti-war protest, and the environmental movement….
Source: Magiric (2011) Read More
“Do you know what fracking the Karoo is like?” demanded Esme Senekal of Somerset East. The people from Royal Dutch Shell and their consultants didn’t reply, their faces impassive. “It’s like you coming and drilling holes in our mother, and then leaving us to look after her and take her to hospital. Leave the Karoo alone!
Source: Fracking the Karoo - The People Say No! (2011) Read More
On Friday 25 March, environmental activist Lewis Pugh delivered a passionate call to action at a public lecture in Cape Town. He implored South Africans to stand up for our rights – particularly the right to water, and the right to a healthy environment – and take on corporate bullies like Shell. If you care about the Karoo, if you care about our country, keep reading…
Source: The Daily Maverick (2011) Read More
Oil and gas companies injected hundreds of millions of gallons of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells in more than 13 states from 2005 to 2009, according to an investigation by Congressional Democrats.
Source: U.S. Congress. Committee On Energy and Commerce (2011) Read More
Slottje warned municipal officials to avoid getting trapped into thinking they have to provide road use agreements. The biggest problem Slottje sees facing municipalities is the increased erosion of enforcement of environmental regulations. “So we’re swinging back to protecting the environment through property rights and home rule,” she said.
Source: Tompkins Weekly (2011) Read More
The relatively new drilling method — known as high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking — carries significant environmental risks.
Source: The New York Times (2011) Read More
Government officials from around the world have recently declared that the risks of natural gas drilling are too great to allow it to proceed without additional analysis.
Source: Amy Mall's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC (2011) Read More
A report linking the fracking industry to violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act put some of the biggest names in shale on the defensive. The House Energy & Commerce Committee launched inquiries, demanding data and calling executives to testify. Senator Barbara Boxer announced hearings and press conferences. In Washington, oversight begins with microphones — and can end with subpoenas.
Source: U.S. Congress. Committee On Energy and Commerce (2010) Read More
Plaintiffs in Connecticut v. American Electric Power allege that six utilities’ emissions are a public nuisance. New York’s Attorney General Schneiderman agrees.
Source: Inside Counsel (2011) Read More
The term “natural,” like many other carefully chosen terms used by the extraction industry, is intended to give the false impression that shale gas is a benign and “clean, green” fuel.
Source: Coalition to Protect New York (2011) Read More
T Boone Pickens has somehow managed to sell President Obama and an astonishing number of Congress members on the myth that nat-gas is a homegrown wonder fuel.
Source: Counterpunch (2011) Read More
Grumbles ponders the criticism leveled at the 2004 study and suggests that it’s now time for Congress and the EPA to take another look at hydraulic fracturing.
Source: ProPublica (2011) Read More
The Court heard oral argument in American Electric Power v. Connecticut (archived) on Tuesday. The case raises questions about the role of the federal courts in addressing climate change.
Source: SCOTUSblog (2011) Read More
“The U.S. Chamber Doesn’t Speak For Me” campaign is designed to expose the Chamber’s dirty business in Washington D.C. and discredit their efforts.
Source: The U.S. Chamber Doesn't Speak For Me (2011) Read More
“Our quality of life has an unquenchable thirst for energy. Offshore drilling and production helps to satisfy this thirst.” — Richard Haut. Extracting energy requires trade-offs. “We want clean air, but we also like the convenience of electricity,” said Richard Haut during a lunch-hour seminar last Tuesday. Haut, founder and senior research scientist at Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), visited Cornell to promote what he calls “environ – mentally friendly drilling systems.”
Source: The Tompkins County Weekly (2011) Read More
Pennsylvania’s natural gas drillers are still flushing vast quantities of contaminated wastewater into rivers that supply drinking water, despite major progress by the industry over the past year in curtailing the practice.
Source: The Mercury | PottsMerc.com (2011) Read More
Amici curiae are fourteen faith-based organizations that are active participants in the ongoing attempt to respond to global climate change and have a strong interest in developing limits on greenhouse gases, which are the primary cause of global climate change.
Source: American Bar Association (2011) Read More
The bromides themselves are not a public health risk – they account for a tiny part of the salty dissolved solids that create an unpleasant taste in water at elevated levels. …But bromides react with the chlorine disinfectants used by drinking water to form brominated trihalomethanes (THMs), a volatile organic compound.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer (2011) Read More
The conference will use natural gas drilling as a lens to explore energy policy, the global energy market, and the integral role the law can and must play in creating energy security and ensuring a sustainable future.
Source: Cornell University Law School (2011) Read More
Here you have a particular village that is going to be under water. Various scientific and government studies report that the right combination of storms could flood the entire village at any time and have recommended relocation at costs varying up to $400 million.
Source: The National Law Journal | Law.com (2010) Read More
Hydraulic fracturing needs to be done carefully and be well-monitored, with particular attention paid to the full scope of carbon dioxide released into our atmosphere to gauge accurately the consequences of global warming due to the expanded use of natural gas.
Source: Center for American Progress (2011) Read More
The Environmental Protection Agency (archived) on Wednesday (2011-03-16) proposed the first national standard (archived) for emissions of mercury and other pollutants from coal (archived) -burning power plants, a rule that could lead to the early closing of a number of older plants and one that is certain to be challenged by the some utilities and Republicans in Congress.
Source: The New York Times (2011) Read More
Anyone not living under a rock must be aware of the mountain of bad news that’s recently come to light about fracking. Read Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy’s emails: informative, dedicated, and free.
Source: Catskill Citizens (2011) Read More
This conservative organization’s action page has form letters on a number of issues that Republican voters may send to their representatives to let them know that the party line may not be in their best interests.
Source: Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP America) (2011) Read More
Bring everyone you can find as well as your biggest signs and banners. After the rally, we will march to the Governor’s office on the Second Floor of the Capitol to let him know we support his policy that New York’s “watersheds are sacrosanct.”
Source: Walter Hang (2011) Read More
An Insurance industry blog by Jared Wade. Strange Disasters includes a story about a crater in Turkmenistan caused by scientific laissez-faire about natural gas extraction.
Source: Risk Management Monitor (2010) Read More
To regard its unspoiled beauty on a spring morning, you might be led to believe that the river is safely off limits from the destructive effects of industrialization. Unfortunately, you’d be mistaken. The Delaware is now the most endangered river in the country, according to the conservation group American Rivers.
Source: Vanity Fair | Business (2010) Read More
Expert reports and selections of news accounts and analysis of the breaking news concerning the meltdown of Japan’s nuclear reactors ongoing since March 13, 2011.
Source: Union of Concerned Scientists (2011) Read More
How far below the earth’s surface do property rights extend? The conventional wisdom is that a landowner holds title to everything between the surface and the center of the earth. This article is the first legal scholarship to challenge the traditional view.
Source: UCLA Law Review (2008) Read More
Let’s consider for a moment the targets the federal government chooses to make an example of. So far, no bankers have been charged, despite the unmitigated greed that nearly brought the world economy down. No coal or oil execs have been charged, despite fouling the entire atmosphere and putting civilization as we know it at risk.
Source: Grist (2011) Read More
I especially enjoyed his reporting on how some environmentalists are for gas drilling despite the inflammatory water faucets and cancer clusters: You don’t have to be working at FAIR to ask the question which environmentalists ? -Louis Proyect.
Source: Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist (2010) Read More
Listening to climate change doubters, and not dismissing them, might avert a “logic schism” similar to the political stalemate on abortion, according to a new paper involving research on skeptics.
Source: The New York Times | Climatewire (2011) Read More
For most of the history of this country our motto, implied or spoken, has been Think Big. Thinking Big has has led us to the two biggest and cheapest political dodges of our time: plan-making and law-making.
Source: Counterpoint Press (2002) Read More
Fracking is being rushed. it’s going full tilt without the scientific, objective regulation, and analysis that important security issues warrant, even though industry experts have known about the many risks it poses to the environment and our health for years.
Source: Global Warning (2011) Read More
In the last decade alone, big energy has pumped more than $2.9 billion into electing and lobbying federal officials and candidates, according to campaign finance and lobbying disclosure reports.
Source: Common Cause (2010) Read More
Residents of Pittsburgh — as well as potentially tens of millions of other everyday citizens in the Northeast corridor who rely on their taps to deliver safe water — are consuming unknown and potentially dangerous amounts of radium in every glass of water.
Source: Grist (2011) Read More
For years, a chemical plant in the Chinese village of Qiugang had polluted the river, poisoned the drinking water, and fouled the air — until residents decided to take a stand. The Warriors of Qiugang, a Yale Environment 360 video co-produced by Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon, tells the story of the villagers’ determined efforts to stop the pollution.
Source: Yale Environment 360 (2011) Read More
Campaigners who fight natural gas altogether, had better come up with a real-world game plan for fostering human progress while limiting environmental risks.
Source: Dot Earth | New York Times (2010) Read More
Organization web site features a widget that shows how you are connected to mountaintop removal where you live.
Source: iLoveMountains.org -- End Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining (2011) Read More
Protestors outside the Buffalo offices of the Department of Environmental Conservation today called for an executive order by Governor Andrew Cuomo to define fracking fluid as a hazardous waste and ban its treatment by municipal facilities…
Source: PBS | Innovation Trail (2011) Read More
A list of blogs by members of the Society of Environmental Journalists covering the environment.
Source: Society of Environmental Journalists (2011) Read More
Climate change issues bring into greater prominence that all the world’s people are linked together and that we all have a stake in creating a sustainable path for the planet and no such path can allow for 10 million avoidable child deaths each year.
Source: Wellcome Trust Frontiers Meeting (2008) Read More
This works because people that see this movie are touched. They are touched because they have been directly affected by hydraulic fracturing or they want to be a voice for those that have been and don’t want to become a silent statistic as well.
Source: Lovesocial Communications (2011) Read More
Richard B. Cheney acknowledged that the oil-field supply corporation he headed, Halliburton Co ., did business with Libya and Iran through foreign subsidiaries. But he insisted that he had imposed a “firm policy” against trading with Iraq. “Iraq’s different,” he said…
Source: Global Policy Forum (2001) Read More
This article examines the lawsuit against Exxon filed by Texas rancher Elizabeth Burns.
Source: Bloomberg.com (2010) Read More
European energy companies are scrambling to secure licenses to roll out extraction projects this side of the Atlantic. …Experts have increasingly expressed concern that the chemicals used in fracking may pose a threat underground or when waste fluids are transported or spilled (archived) .
Source: guardian.co.uk | Environment (2010) Read More
Some of the new data coming out today makes it clear that everyone’s suspicion that the U.S. was both bullying and buying countries into endorsing their do-little position on climate were even sort of worse than we had realized…
Source: Democracy Now! (2010) Read More
In the name of job creation and clean energy, the Obama administration has doled out billions of dollars in stimulus money to some of the nation’s biggest polluters and granted them sweeping exemptions from the most basic form of environmental oversight.
Source: The Center for Public Integrity (2010) Read More
To protests from business and praise from unions, environmentalists and consumer groups, one agency after another has ratcheted up the price of life, justifying tougher — and more costly — standards…
Source: The New York Times (2011) Read More
The Sierra Club’s Finger Lakes chapter compiled local data on gas development proposals in central New York. From watershed maps to permit summaries, the page equipped residents with tools to engage regulators. As the Marcellus debate intensified statewide, the group aimed to ground the conversation in regional facts and familiar landscapes.
Source: Sierra Club (2009) Read More