Fracking

In a report released Tuesday on the Obama administration’s regulatory priorities for the upcoming year, the Interior Department signaled its plans to get tougher in its oversight of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and complete its rulemaking on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public lands.

Wyoming’s Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in a three-year-old case in which landowner and environmental groups challenged the trade secrecy protection applied to the chemical disclosure part of the state’s rules covering hydraulic fracturing (fracking). The court has taken the case under advisement.

Anti-hydraulic fracturing (fracking) organizations targeted California Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday using his public appearances in Southern California as sites for demonstration and protest.

Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) has called on the federal government to impose a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the federal waters off the coast of California until a comprehensive study is conducted to determine the impacts on the marine environment and public health.

With promotions in recent months and years that include executives drinking some cleaned up fluids used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking), Halliburton Corp.’s top leaders have attempted to demonstrate its and the industry’s ability to take lemons and make lemonade. In this case, the “lemonade” is a stale-favored drink that is nontoxic, but not meant to replace normal beverages of choice.

A plurality of Americans support hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and would even support the practice in their own hometown, according to a poll conducted by the Robert Morris University (RMU) Polling Institute.

George P. Mitchell and crew long have been credited with finding the trigger to unlock unconventional natural gas, but it was in fact a colorful cast of visionaries, oddballs and take-no-prisoner pitchmen who helped launch the United States on the road to energy independence, as told in the insightful, and at times suspenseful, new book by bestselling author Gregory Zuckerman, The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters.

Voters in three Colorado towns voted to place moratoriums on natural gas and oil exploration and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) Tuesday, and a moratorium on the ballot in a fourth town failed by just a few votes. The ballot initiatives were seen as largely symbolic efforts, since there is little to no drilling being done in any of the towns. Meanwhile, across the country in Ohio, a ban on fracking on Youngstown’s ballot failed for a second time.

Shale development in the United Kingdom poses a very low risk to the public, according to a report released Thursday by the government’s health agency, Public Health England (PHE).