Practice

After studying hundreds of thousands of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations, the practice was determined to have caused noticeable tremors at the surface in only three cases and was “not a significant” source of earthquakes, according to researchers at UK’s Durham University.

Mack Redford, a former Boise private practice attorney, has been confirmed for a second six-year term on the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (PUC) by the Idaho State Senate. Redford was appointed to a second six-year term by Gov. Butch Otter, who originally appointed him to the PUC in 2007, and in 2008-2009 he served as president of the three-member regulatory panel. A former attorney specializing in commercial transactions, construction and engineering law, Redford now serves on the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners, serving on both the international and water committees.

A U.S. District Court in Denver ruled Wednesday that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) practice of keeping secret from the public the identity of entities nominating public lands for oil and natural gas development is unlawful.

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has released 90 pages of documents detailing proposed regulations governing high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF), and it has set the dates for a 30-day public comment period on the proposed rules. The action appeared to signal a long-awaited break in the state’s drilling moratorium.

An environmental group focused on recreation says industrial-scale development of oil shale is harmful to rivers and could require billions gallons of water annually, significantly more than what would be needed for hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Two separate polls conducted in New York State have found that public opinion of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) hasn’t changed much over the past year.

Chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) have attracted the most attention from people wary of the well stimulation practice, but water consumption is another worry of fracking skeptics, as evidenced by to two recent reports.

Institutional investor groups representing trillions of dollars in assets have called on the oil and natural gas industry to use best practice control technologies to reduce global methane emissions from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of unconventional wells.

The North Carolina Senate on Wednesday passed a bill to legalize hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and begin the process of creating a regulatory framework for the practice.