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
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
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
The DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy promotes research and development aimed at enhancing domestic energy production and technological efficiency. During the shale boom, federal research initiatives supported improved extraction techniques even as environmental and regulatory questions intensified.
Source: U.S. Department of Energy (2009) Read More
A growing body of litigation traced disputes over groundwater contamination, lease conflicts, and regulatory authority tied to hydraulic fracturing. Lawsuits accumulated across states as plaintiffs sought damages and clarity. The courtroom became an extension of the drilling field — technical arguments, expert testimony, and contested science unfolding under oath.
Source: Interstate Oil and Gas Commission (IOGCC) (2009) Read More
The EPA’s draft greenhouse gas inventory quantified methane and carbon dioxide emissions across sectors — including natural gas systems. Methane’s potency as a greenhouse gas sharpened attention on leaks from wells, pipelines, and compressor stations. The numbers reframed shale not just as local extraction, but as a climate variable.
Source: U. S. EPA Office of Atmospheric Programs (2006) Read More
Open waste pits associated with oil and gas operations have been linked to bird and wildlife deaths when animals mistake contaminated water for safe habitat. Mortality reports raised concerns about regulatory standards and monitoring. Extraction’s footprint, critics argued, extends beyond property lines and into migration corridors.
Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2000) Read More
Our analysis suggests that while shale gas development poses significant risks to the environment, including faulty well construction, blowouts, and above-ground contamination due to leaks and spills of fracturing fluids and waste water, technologies and best practices exist that can help manage these risks.
Source: Briefing Paper (2010) Read More
Coalbed methane development revealed a familiar pattern: energy extraction layered atop groundwater systems and rural landscapes. Pumping methane from coal seams alters aquifers, produces saline discharge, and reshapes surface hydrology. The environmental challenges are not incidental — they are engineered into the process. As unconventional gas expands, coalbed lessons echo forward.
Source: International Petroleum Environmental Conference, University of Tulsa (2003) Read More
In a Manhattan community board meeting, residents debated resolutions opposing upstate drilling that could affect city water. The geography was layered: city dwellers weighing decisions made 100 miles north. The discussion showed how watershed politics collapse distance — what happens upstream echoes downstream.
Source: Manhattan Community Board #3 (2009) Read More
Congressional Research Service reports detailed the mechanics of unconventional shale development — horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing fluids, production decline curves. The technical primer underscored a reality: the shale revolution was engineered as much as it was discovered.
Source: U.S. Congress (2009) Read More
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection oversees a watershed supplying drinking water to more than 9 million people. As Marcellus Shale drilling approached upstate reservoirs, NYCDEP entered the debate forcefully. When a city of that size signals risk, drilling is no longer rural policy — it becomes metropolitan infrastructure defense.
Source: City of New York (2009) Read More
(Editor’s Note, 15 Dec 2024. The original item is no longer available on the web. The former title of this piece was: Natassaja Noell. Gas drilling and toxic terrorists: New York City Mayor says risks of gas drilling “unacceptable”. 23 Mar 2010.
Source: Earthworks(2014) Read More
This is where policy turns sharp: how legal carve-outs, jurisdictional gaps, and regulatory limits shape what companies must disclose and what agencies can enforce. The title itself signals the tension — not just drilling into rock, but drilling through legal frameworks. The hook is governance: who has authority, what gets exempted, what gets hidden, and how drinking water protection becomes a fight over statutes rather than only chemistry.
Source: Environmental Working Group (2009) Read More