Hydraulic Fracturing

Gov. Gavin Newsom pleased environmentalists by doing what his predecessor, Gov. Jerry Brown, refused – halting all new oil and gas fracking and placing a moratorium on another extraction method linked to a massive oil spill in Kern County.

December 9, 2019 - Los Angeles Times

The Bakersfield Office of the Bureau of Land Management released an environmental study that is the basis for undoing a 2013 de facto moratorium on fracking on federal lands in California. The Supplemental EIS triggers a 45-day public comment period.

April 28, 2019 - San Francisco Chronicle

As hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, transforms America's energy sector and environmental policy, Europe has been reluctant to embrace the drilling technique. Will this reluctance harm the continent's economic growth and emission curbing efforts?

October 13, 2013 - The New York Times

The wastewater well from the process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, triggered 167 earthquakes in and around Youngstown, Ohio, during a single year of operation, according to research in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

September 8, 2013 - NBC News

Environmentalists charged that the new federal rules guiding hydraulic fracturing do not protect the environment and inform the public about the fracking process. The new Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, appeared prepared for their comments.

May 21, 2013 - The New York Times

Fracking opponents scored two major court victories In New York State on May 2 when an Appellate Division court panel ruled unanimously that two towns can use zoning to ban fracking. Paradoxically, it could also be good for energy companies.

May 12, 2013 - The Oneonta Daily Star

Contrary to what would seem logical, estimates of oil and natural gas reserves may increase as they are depleted, as the new USGS assessment of recoverable oil reserves in the greater Bakken Basin shows. How does this square with peak oil theory?

May 9, 2013 - MIT Technology Review

Environmentalists scored a major victory in federal court in their battle against fracking in California when a judge ruled that the BLM violated NEPA by not requiring an environmental review prior to auctioning rights for drilling in Monterey Co.

April 12, 2013 - The Monterey County Herald

An online petition opposing a proposed 53-story, mixed-use "Energy Tower" began circulating in March. "Is this what we want to present to the world, that we're the Dubai of Texas?", asked the organizer. However, Midland is not new to tall buildings.

April 11, 2013 - The Wall Street Journal

Hydraulic fracturing may finally allow drillers to extricate oil from the Monterey Shale, creating a shale oil boom that could dwarf ones in states such as North Dakota. Environmentalists are digging in to limit the controversial practice.

February 5, 2013 - The New York Times

Oil drilling has brought abundant prosperity to North Dakota over the past few years. Nicholas Kusnetz exposes the impact of weak environmental regulation in the state.

June 10, 2012 - ProPublica

The battleground is the Big Sandy coal power plant in eastern Kentucky. The owner, American Electric Power, under pressure from coal proponents, agreed to do a $1 billion retrofit rather than switching to natural gas. Victory was short-lived.

May 31, 2012 - The New York Times - Energy & Environment

Joe Romm reports on a new U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) paper that ties the unprecedented rise in earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 and greater across a broad swath of the country to man-made sources.

April 9, 2012 - Climate Progress

A key ruling on whether and/or how to allow the High Volume Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing (or fracking) method of extracting natural gas is imminent in New York State. The decision could set a nationwide precedent.

January 13, 2012 - THE DIRT

Grist delves into the responses and repercussions of a recent New York Times story about contaminated water in Pittsburgh caused by a method of extracting natural gas known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

March 5, 2011 - Grist