What impact could hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, be having on food supplies?  Fracking fluid spills have already killed cows, and in other cases, livestock that may have come into contact with fracking fluid has had to be quarantined.  Arsenic and other toxins have turned up in vegetables grown near such drilling operations.  But exactly what [...]

Here’s something interesting: Wyoming,  a state with a reputation for being friendly to gas drillers, has adopted new rules that give the public access to documents detailing chemicals used in oil and gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operations.  According to the Billings Gazette, the new rules – slated to go into effect next [...]

New York officials faced with the option of banning hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for natural gas in the state’s Marcellus shale bed are learning quite a bit at the expense of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. New York has not allowed drilling for natural gas reserves in the state’s Marcellus Shale since 2008 while its neighbor Pennsylvania, [...]

BP says it will not pursue potential oil reserves off the coast of Greenland. According to an AFP report, because BP is reeling from its exploratory drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, it agreed with the Greenland government that it would not be in the company’s interest to explore the reserves recently discovered there. [...]

A test on three New York City public schools found unacceptable levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at each. According to a report from NY1.com, the tests were conducted at the request of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the city of New York and its School Construction Authority. It is the first-ever test of its kind, [...]

The debate over the value versus safety in the toxic hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) process for natural gas has divided at least one New York county, according to a recent USA Today report. In Sullivan County, N.Y., neighbors are standing on opposite sides of the issue. Those in favor of the “fracking” process are mostly wooed [...]

A bill putting a temporary moratorium on natural gas drilling in New York’s Marcellus Shale is facing some resistance in the state’s Assembly, but one legislator said the ban could be arbitrary, anyway. According to a report out of Binghamton, N.Y., PressConnects.com indicates five out of six Assemblymen plan to vote against a bill that would [...]

A deal to begin paying some of the thousands of victims of toxic Chinese drywall may be near, if a persistent federal judge has his way today. On Tuesday in New Orleans, U.S. Judge Eldon Fallon will bring together major defendants in several consolidated multi-district litigations with the sole intent of nearing terms of a [...]

Remember how the federal government proclaimed that most of the oil from the BP oil spill had disappeared?  Well, a team of scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) may have found some of it. According to a press release from the institution, the team discovered a plume of oil measuring at least 22 [...]

US Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) is calling on the federal government to regulate hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.  Pennsylvania is in the midst of a fracking boom, but recent reports of water contamination linked to drilling in the state’s Marcellus shale region have created controversy in the state. According to the Associated Press, Casey is sponsoring [...]