Contains the keyword press

WSKG Community Conversation-Marcellus, WSKG , (2009)

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As part of WSKG’s biweekly series, Community Conversation, producer Crystal Sarakas moderated a series of discussions on the proposed drilling in New York and what impact that could hold for the region.

A Colossal Fracking Mess, Bateman, Christopher , Vanity Fair | Business, (2010)

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Photographs by Jacques del Conte

More than 15 million people, including residents of New York City and Philadelphia, get their water from its pristine watershed.

To regard its unspoiled beauty on a spring morning, you might be led to believe that the river is safely off limits from the destructive effects of industrialization. Unfortunately, you’d be mistaken.

The Delaware is now the most endangered river in the country, according to the conservation group American Rivers.

A V.F. video look at a town transformed by fracking.

That’s because large swaths of land—private and public—in the watershed have been leased to energy companies eager to drill for natural gas here using a controversial, poorly understood technique called hydraulic fracturing. “Fracking,” as it’s colloquially known, involves injecting millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals, many of them toxic, into the earth at high pressures to break up rock formations and release natural gas trapped inside.

Sixty miles west of Damascus, the town of Dimock, population 1,400, makes all too clear the dangers posed by hydraulic fracturing. You don’t need to drive around Dimock long to notice how the rolling hills and farmland of this Appalachian town are scarred by barren, square-shaped clearings, jagged, newly constructed roads with 18-wheelers driving up and down them, and colorful freight containers labeled “residual waste.”

See: Dimock Natural Gas Drilling.

See: Cabot Oil & Gas.

See: Dark Side of a Natural Gas Boom.

See: Before/After Drilling (video).

Anger grows across the world at the real price of 'frontier oil', Wachman, Richard , guardian.co.uk, (2010)

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A woman hurries away from the heat of a gas flare near a flow station belonging to Shell in Warri, Nigeria. Photograph: George Osodi/AP


Far from the Gulf of Mexico, campaigners are accusing energy companies of destroying land and livelihoods in the search for increasingly scarce resources.

The eyes of the world are on BP after the disaster that left oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico at the rate of 50,000 barrels a day. But campaigners accuse Big Oil of an appalling track record elsewhere in the world, saying it leaves a trail of devastation in its wake.

From Nigeria to Kazakhstan in Central Asia, and Colombia and Ecuador in South America, the oil majors stand accused of a blatant disregard for local communities and the environments in which they operate.

With demand for energy expected to surge as industrialisation accelerates in China, India and Brazil, critics say oil companies are taking ever-increasing risks to cash in on yet another bonanza...

...Kate Allen of Amnesty International says: "The result of oil exploration, extraction and spills is that many people in the Niger Delta have to drink, cook with, and wash in polluted water; they have to eat contaminated fish – if they are lucky enough to still be able to find fish – and farm on spoiled land."

She adds: "After oil spills, the air reeks of pollutants. Many [people] have been driven into poverty, and because they can't make Shell accountable for its actions, there is enormous distrust between the group and local people."

See: Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it | Environment | The Observer

See: Worlds Collide at Cancun Climate Talks

Before the Big Spill, Sabin, Paul , Slate, (2010)

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Slate is a general readership online magazine offering analysis and commentary on politics, news, and culture. It was bought by the Washington Post from Microsoft in 2004.

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In the last half-century, three major oil spills have significantly marked American politics—the 1969 Santa Barbara, Calif., spill, the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, and now the 2010 spill in the Gulf.

They have a striking thing in common: Each occurred after the oil industry successfully resisted demands for safety improvements that would have greatly reduced the damage the spills caused.

The Valdez spill invigorated institutional investors and environmental activists to press companies to adopt the Ceres Principles, a new code of corporate environmental conduct. The accident also brought the passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which barred the Exxon Valdez ship and others involved in oil spills from operating in Prince William Sound.

See: CiCi O'Donnell. July/August 2010. The Loma Prietan | Sierra Club. "Forty-one Years Later, Have Things Changed?". Section titled, "Political Fallout." Halfway down the page: Eventually, Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel admitted partial responsibility for the permit that allowed Union Oil to use the inferior casing that caused the leak.

See: Pew Environment Group (PEG) Factsheet: Industry Opposition to Government Regulation (PDF), October 14, 2010. Article explains the industrial resistance to govenment regulation in the fields of acid rain, asbestos, airbags, catalytic converters, seat belts, lead paint, etc.

For decades, corporations and their trade associations have opposed regulations aimed at protecting human health and the environment. Industry has repeatedly argued that the cost of complying is too high, the benefits to society don’t justify the investment, or the regulations will cost jobs. When regulations have been implemented, however, the compliance costs have proved to be less and the benefits greater than industry officials predicted.

See: National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling | Mixplex

See: The Ceres Principles | Mixplex

Berkeley-BP Deal Only Looks Worse Post-Spill, Altieri, Miguel , The Daily Californian, (2010)

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The potential consequences for the environment and society of BP's funded research on biofuels at Berkeley are deeply disturbing. Many scientists have long predicted that the large-scale industrial boom in biofuels will be disastrous for farmers, the environment and consumers and now marine ecosystems.

The Daily Californian is an independent, student-run newspaper.

One of the few campus newspapers in the country that is completely independent from the university it covers, the Daily Cal supports itself entirely from advertising revenue and does not receive equipment resources or any form of financial support from the university or the Associated Students of the University of California.

See: Big Oil Goes to College.

See: Investigate Research - Fri, Oct 22, 2010.

See: Report: UC Berkeley Research Influenced Too Heavily by BP - Mon, Oct 18, 2010.

See: Discussion of Bias Essential in Private Funding Debate - Mon, Aug 16, 2010.

BP chief hails American breakthrough in gas supplies from shale rocks, Macalister, Terry , guardian.co.uk, (2010)

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BP's Tony Hayward tells World Economic Forum of 'game changer' technique to serve world's energy needs.

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Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP at a session at the World Economic Forum in Davos wher he spoke of gas extraction from shale. Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

Excitement in the industry over "unconventional" gas supplies has led to a wave of investment in America which Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, believes could eventually spread around the world.

BP inherited a major stake in shale operations when it took over Amoco 12 years ago, but has added to that by spending $1.75bn buying shale interests from rival Chesapeake Energy in the summer of 2008. Last November BP showed its determination to extend the use of the techniques when it signed a production-sharing agreement with the government of Indonesia to exploit new reserves in Kalimantan.

See: BP Deepwater Horizon Committee Hears From Oil Industry Executives

See: National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling

See: Before the Big Spill

See: BP - For BP, a History of Spills and Safety Lapses

Broad Scope of EPA’s Fracturing Study Raises Ire of Gas Industry, Lustgarten, Abrahm , ProPublica, (2010)

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by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica - April 7, 2010.

Series: Buried Secrets: Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat.

A federal study of hydraulic fracturing set to begin this spring is expected to provide the most expansive look yet at how the natural gas drilling process can affect drinking water supplies, according to interviews with EPA officials and a set of documents outlining the scope of the project.

The research will take a substantial step beyond previous studies and focus on how a broad range of ancillary activity – not just the act of injecting fluids under pressure – may affect drinking water quality.

The oil and gas industry strongly opposes this new approach. The agency’s intended research "goes well beyond relationships between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water," said Lee Fuller, vice president of government affairs for the Independent Petroleum Association of America in comments (PDF) he submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency.

See 22 page Powerpoint, Hydraulic Fracturing Applicability of the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act Science Advisory Board Discussion.(2010).

Colorado GOP to EPA: Keep your noses out of our fracking fluid, Williams, David O. , The Colorado Independent, (2010)

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Eighteen Republican members of the Colorado State Legislature Monday sent a letter (pdf) to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) demanding the federal agency refrain from regulating the natural gas drilling practice of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” no matter what a two-year EPA study of the process reveals.

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Halliburton frac fluid on a tractor trailer near Buffalo, Pa.   Source: Marcellus-Shale.us

See: Christoper Hayes. The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC: Fossil Fuel Follies,  at 2:22.

Controversial gas 'fracking' extraction headed to Europe, Starr, Luke , guardian.co.uk | Environment, (2010)

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Europe's dash for gas is leading Halliburton, Chevron and Exxon to consider bringing hydraulic fracturing across the Atlantic.

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Workers at the Barnett Shale field of Fort Worth, Texas, where hydraulic fracturing technology is needed to release underground gas. Photograph: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

Despite growing evidence from the US of a raft of negative environmental and social consequences of drilling for natural gas using the controversial hydraulic fracturing process, European energy companies are scrambling to secure licenses to roll out extraction projects this side of the Atlantic.

...Experts have increasingly expressed concern that the chemicals used in fracking may pose a threat underground or when waste fluids are transported or spilled.

...'Construction of pipelines could cause problems, but so could the construction of roads,' adds Kassenberg. 'If roads are built to transport water and gas then it will open up pristine countryside to mass tourism, and could bring an additional negative impact to the environment.'

See: France to Unlock Dirty Oil Under Paris With Texan Help

See: Frac Tech: Stage After Stage | Shale Maps of the World

See: Dark Side of a Natural Gas Boom

Editorial - A Decision Above Reproach | The Cornell Daily Sun, Cornell Daily Sun , (2010)

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Cornell Daily Sun Editorial.  Published: 2/16/10.

Peter Meinig, chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees and former associate of a large natural gas company, is at the center of many competing interests, and should not participate in any decisions the University makes regarding leasing land for natural gas drilling.

...In order to reach the most appropriate outcome for Cornell, and for the University to remain above reproach and second-guessing by the many interested parties, Meinig should recuse himself from all decisions and discussions regarding the leasing of land for natural gas drilling.

See: Big Oil Goes to College