fracking
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Major fracking spill happening now in Pennsylvania
We have the makings of an environmental disaster in northern Pennsylvania at the moment. According to local Pennsylvania television station WNEP, a natural-gas well blew out in the middle of the night while crews were engaged in “fracking” activities: Bradford County’s director of public safety said a Chesapeake well went out of control late Tuesday […]
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Now you’re cooking with gas: Ask Umbra on energy-efficient stoves
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, My wife would like to remodel the kitchen. This frightens me, personally, but I look it as an opportunity to buy some more energy-efficient appliances. Right now we have an ancient electric stove. Would replacing it with a natural gas stove be more efficient, or should we […]
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Is this the natural gas industry’s fib-filled high pressure sales strategy?
As reported by Brian Merchant at Treehugger, a tipster has offered up an internal oil and natural gas company document called "Talking Points for Selling Oil and Gas Lease Rights." If this is genuine, it’s basically a “How To Lie To Get Drilling Rights For Fun and Profit” guide. One thing the document tells us […]
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Natural gas from fracking is worse for climate than coal, says new study
Photo: Erland HowdenNatural gas obtained through "fracking" — the increasingly common process of splitting open underground deposits with high pressure chemicals — now has an even bigger strike against it than its potential to contaminate regional water supplies. Fracking, it turns out, yields more global warming per unit of energy than coal — at least […]
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Future of Pennsylvania is dystopian wasteland studded with natural gas wells
Time's cover story "Could Shale Gas Power the World?" is all about how we're going to get ourselves out of our current energy crisis by turning the Marcellus shale formation into a hydrocarbon war zone pockmarked with loud, noxious natural gas wells. The reserves in question happen to be underneath some of the most densely […]
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Get freaked about hydrofracking: now!
Like the sign says.Photo: Not an AlternativeBabydolls, behold the obvious: The situation in Japan is horrendous. Indeed, it trumps anything else that might previously have fallen under the aegis of horrendous. Having said that, there is another horrendous environmental threat that is gearing up to gush out of our collective faucets right here in the […]
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The Climate Post: Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, including Fox News, goes carbon neutral
“Maybe climate change is a hoax, but my company is going to reduce its footprint anyway.”Photo: World Economic ForumAn email has linked Fox News to deliberately casting doubt on climate change, but their parent company — Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp — seems to take climate change very seriously. News Corp announced it is now carbon neutral, claiming […]
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Current Arkansas earthquakes weak sauce compared to potential fracking-caused ‘Big One’
Photo: Martin LuffI don’t mean to alarm you, but the 4.7 magnitude temblors felt last Sunday in Arkansas, part of a recent “swarm” of earthquakes in the area, could be just a prelude to something much more devastating. The threat would be lessened if oil and gas companies are barred from injecting post-fracking wastewater into […]
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Pittsburgh’s drinking water is radioactive, thanks to fracking. Only question is, how much?
The drinking water of tens of millions of Pennsylvanians is threatened by natural-gas fracking — including the 2.3 million who live in Pittsburgh.Photo: Via Tsuji Residents of Pittsburgh — as well as potentially tens of millions of other everyday citizens in the Northeast corridor who rely on their taps to deliver safe water — are […]