Meet The Folks On The Front Lines Of Fracking In California
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…
Mike G
Add Toxic Air Pollution To Growing List Of Problems With Fracking
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…
Voters Ban Fracking In Texas, California, And Ohio
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,…
Climate Deniers In Congress Take 3.5 Times As Much Money From Dirty Energy Interests
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…
Utilities Couldn’t Kill Distributed Solar, So Now They’re Co-Opting The Business Model
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…
EPA’s Cross State Air Pollution Rule To Finally Move Forward
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…
Oil Companies Spending Big To Defeat Community-Led Anti-Fracking Initiatives At The Ballot Box
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,…
Crude Oil Transport Project Halted In California After Environmentalists Sue
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…
Uncertainty Over Tax Credits Causing Turmoil In Renewable Energy Sector
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…
More Oil Companies To Disclose Risks Of Fracking, Climate Change To Investors
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…
NASA Confirms A 2,500-Square-Mile Cloud Of Methane Floating Over US Southwest
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.…
Fracking Boom Has Had Devastating Consequences For Motorists
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…
Reining In Global Warming Emissions Will Be Good For The Economy: Report
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…
Experts Are "Stunned" By How Quickly Oceans Are Warming
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 –…
Confirmed: California Aquifers Contaminated With Billions Of Gallons of Fracking Wastewater
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…
Solar Could Be Our Biggest Source Of Energy By 2050, If Politicians Make it Happen
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…
Arctic Madness: Shell and ConocoPhillips Plead With US Govt to Avoid Standards For Arctic Spill Preparedness
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…
China To Create National Cap-And-Trade Program As Obama Admin Must Bypass U.S. Senate On Climate
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…
Investors Waking Up To Risks Of Stranded Assets, Realities Of Shale Bubble
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…
California Farmers File Suit Alleging Oil Companies’ Faulty Wastewater Injection Caused Crop Loss
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.…