Author: Steve Horn

Robert Murray, owner of the Ohio-based coal giant, Murray Energy Corporation, filed a defamation lawsuit against a prominent liberal blogger and The Huffington Post.  Filed on September 25 in Belmont County’s Court of Common Pleas, Murray’s complaint accuses Mike Stark, creator of FossilAgenda.com and Stark Reports, and The Huffington Post of defamation and invasion of privacy

A month after over 865,200 gallons of oil spilled from Tesoro Logistics’ 6-inch pipeline near Tioga, North Dakota, the cause of the leak is still largely unknown to anyone but Tesoro. The pipeline resumed operations today. Carrying oil obtained via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), the controversial horizontial drilling method used to

In a major ruling that’s flown under the radar, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit – based in Denver, Colorado – decided not to grant the Sierra Club and Clean Energy Future Oklahoma a temporary injunction on the construction of the southern half of Transcanada’s Keystone XL tar sands

The Union of Concerned Scientists‘ Center for Science and Democracy has released a new report titled “Toward an Evidence-Based Fracking Debate” and DeSmogBlog‘s “frackademia” work takes the center stage in the 53-page heavily cited document. With chapters on the science of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), fracking’s regulatory landscape (and lack thereof), industry transparency (and

Over 20,600 barrels of oil fracked from the Bakken Shale has spilled from a Tesoro Logistics pipeline in Tioga, North Dakota in one of the biggest onshore oil spills in recent U.S. history. Though the spill occurred on September 29, the U.S. National Response Center – tasked with responding to chemical and oil

Ezra Levant is the man behind an attempt to re-frame the Alberta tar sands as “ethical oil.” “Ethical” – Levant’s deceptive public relations campaign argues of the tar sands “carbon bomb” – because it doesn’t come from the war-ridden and human rights-abusing Middle East.  Now, the “ethical oil” campaign has a

Frank Giustra – key power broker and close colleague of former President Bill Clinton – has taken a seat on the Board of Directors of U.S. Oil Sands, an Alberta-based company aiming to develop tar sands deposits in Utah’s Uintah Basin. U.S. Oil Sands – in naming several new members to its

Yesterday, New York Times‘ columnist Joe Nocera weighed in on the study by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and University of Texas-Austin (UT-Austin) on the climate change impacts of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). DeSmogBlog got a special mention in Nocera’s op-ed titled, “A Fracking Rorschach Test.”  Nocera praised UT-Austin Professor David Allen and colleagues for obtaining what he claimed

Friends of the Earth-U.S. (FOE) and 350.org have jointly unveiled an easily sharable graphic depicting the web of deceit surrounding the environmental review for the northern half of Transcanada’s Keystone XL tar sands export pipeline.  The graphic’s notorious star: Environmental Resources Management, Inc., better known as ERM Group. ERM Group was chosen by the State

Alongside releasing its controversial findings on fugitive methane emissions caused by hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) on September 16, University of Texas-Austin also unveiled an industry-stacked Steering Committee roster for the study it conducted in concert with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Stacked with former and current oil industry lobbyists, policy professionals and business executives,

The long-awaited Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)-sponsored hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) fugitive methane emissions study is finally out. Unfortunately, it’s another case of “frackademia” or industry-funded ‘science’ dressed up to look like objective academic analysis. If reliable, the study – published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and titled, “Measurements

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has granted the first ever LNG export permit license to Dominion Resources, Inc. to export gas obtained from the controversial hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) process in the Marcellus Shale basin.   It’s the fourth ever export terminal approved by the DOE, with the three others along the

University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s “frackademia” program proposal – set to transform UT’s Institute of Agriculture into a de facto fracking land leasing agency – has been put to rest for now, according to The Tennesseean. In short: the university’s premiere leasing proposal for acreage didn’t recieve a single bid.    UT-Knoxville’s proposed program – as revealed in a DeSmogBlog

With the school year starting for many this week, it’s another year of academia for professors across the United States – and another year of “frackademia” for an increasingly large swath of “frackademics” under federal law.  “Frackademia” is best defined as flawed but seemingly legitimate science and economic studies on

Aubrey McClendon’s penchant for “land grab” as a business model made the recently-ousted Chesapeake Energy CEO infamous – and he’s at it again for his new start-up hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) company in Ohio’s Utica Shale basin. Under Securities and Exchange Commission investigation for sketchy business practices, McClendon departed Chesapeake with

Warren Buffett – the fourth richest man on the planet and major campaign contributor to President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 – may soon get a whole lot richer. That’s because he just bought over half a billion bucks worth of Suncor Energy stock: $524 million in the second quarter

DeSmog Canada recently revealed Andy Cobb and Mike Damanskis – two political satirists in the spotlight for their ongoing spoofery of the Alberta tar sands project – had an Indiegogo fundraising promotional video for their upcoming “vacation” to the Alberta tar sands ordered removed from YouTube due to an alleged copyright

Mark Fiore – the Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist satirist – has a new video out that in two-minutes pokes fun at the perverse conflicts of interest that’ve prevailed throughout debate over the prospective Keystone XL northern half. It’s these conflicts of interest that DeSmogBlog has focused on in the past

Pennsylvania Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate and former head of the PA Department of Environmental Protection, Kathleen “Katie” McGinty, has hired powerful PR firm SKDKnickerbocker for her campaign’s communications efforts. SKDKnickerbocker – once known as Squier Knapp Dunn – is co-owned by President Barack Obama’s former Communications Director Anita Dunn and a member

Most don’t think of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) when pondering the future of TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands export pipeline – but they should.  There are numerous ties between key members of the fracking industry and groups pushing for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. And these threads all lead back, one