Author: Mike G

The oil and gas industry has worked very hard to push the narrative that fracking is completely safe, and that any opposition is led by a small group of full-time activists. But a new series of in-depth investigative reporting and photography called Faces Of Fracking is profiling the Californians living

The threat posed by fracking to water quality is an issue receiving a lot of attention lately (see here, here, and here, for instance), as is the looming collapse of the fracking boom. But the Center for Environmental Health, suspecting that the whole story wasn’t being told, partnered with 15

Yesterday’s elections sent several more climate deniers to a dirty energy money-rich Congress, where they’re already sharpening their knives and preparing to cut the centerpiece of President Obama’s climate agenda, the EPA‘s Clean Power Plan, to shreds. Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, summed it up succinctly: “With

As the US Environmental Protection Agency attempts to draw down emissions from power plants via its Clean Power Plan, fossil fuel interests are, of course, fighting back. A new special report from Earthjustice exposes the “unparalleled political spending by dirty energy industries” intent on defeating the EPA‘s climate initiative. Power

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then they… steal your business model? Solar energy is booming: More than half a million US homes and businesses have gone solar, some 200,000 in just the last two years alone. The Solar Energy Industries Association estimates

First issued in 2011 but quickly met with numerous legal challenges, the EPA‘s Cross State Air Pollution Rule is finally cleared for takeoff. Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit lifted a hold it had placed on the CSAPR, effectively giving the EPA a green light

Election day is fast approaching and, in a pattern becoming all too familiar, oil companies are spending big to defeat citizen-led initiatives to halt fracking in California. By last August, oil industry front group Californians for Energy Independence, which is leading the charge against anti-fracking measures in the sate, had

Back in August, DeSmog reported on California environmentalists stopping “stealth carbon bombs” in their communities. Now they’re celebrating another victory as a dangerous—and illegal—crude oil transport project in Sacramento has been halted as well. According to a report by the Sacramento Bee last March, the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management

Uncertainty over the future of the wind production tax credit and the solar investment tax credit—and Congressional inaction on both matters—could pose a serious challenge to development in the renewable energy sector. Wind energy had a huge year in 2012, with 13,128 megawatts (MW) of new wind capacity installed, but

Last week brought yet more evidence that investors in oil and gas companies are waking up to the risks of fracking and climate change. Two natural gas companies, Anadarko Petroleum and EOG Resources, recently struck a deal with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to disclose the financial and environmental

When NASA researchers first saw data indicating a massive cloud of methane floating over the American Southwest, they found it so incredible that they dismissed it as an instrument error. But as they continued analyzing data from the European Space Agency’s Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography instrument from

A joint investigation by the Houston Chronicle and Houston Public Media shines a light on one of the fracking boom’s lesser known impacts: traffic deaths. With several shale fields in play—including Eagle Ford and Permian Basin, which together are pumping out over 3.2 million barrels per day—Texas has contributed heavily

Not only will it lead to more costly and catastrophic events like wildfires, droughts, and floods, but delaying action on climate change will in and of itself consitute a missed opportunity to bolster the US economy, according to a new report. Entitled “Seeing Is Believing: Creating A New Climate Economy

Southern Hemisphere ocean temperatures have been rising much more quickly than previously thought, so much so that global ocean warming may have been underestimated by as much as 24 – 55%, according to a new study. Published by the journal Nature Climate Change and carried out by researchers at the

After California state regulators shut down 11 fracking wastewater injection wells last July over concerns that the wastewater might have contaminated aquifers used for drinking water and farm irrigation, the EPA ordered a report within 60 days. It was revealed yesterday that the California State Water Resources Board has sent

The sun could be our biggest single source of energy and prevent 6 bilion tonnes of climate-warming CO2 pollution by 2050, according to two new reports. Issued by the International Energy Agency, the two “Technology Roadmap” reports conclude that solar photovoltaic (PV) systems could supply 16% of the world’s electricity

Two oil companies planning to drill in remote Arctic waters, Shell and ConocoPhillips, are pleading with U.S. regulators not to make them follow new guidelines proposed by the Interior Department that would require the companies to keep emergency spill response equipment close at hand and prohibit the use of chemical

The Obama Administration is pursuing an international climate agreement that would be “politically binding” but would not be a treaty requiring ratification by two-thirds of the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, China has announced it will create a national cap-and-trade program. These two facts amount to a stunning juxtaposition. China, currently the

The day after some 400,000 people marched in the streets of New York to call for climate justice, the world woke to some more historic news: The Rockefeller family, heirs to the Standard Oil fortune, announced that they were directing their $860 million charitable fund to divest from fossil fuels.

A farming company in Kern County, California, has sued four oil producers over claims that their faulty wastewater injection methods led to the contamination of groundwater it uses for irrigation. Palla Farms LLC, a ninety-two-year-old family farm operation, says it had to tear out hundreds of cherry trees due to high levels