[Editor’s update: Food & Water Watch has submitted a Right-to-Know request to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office. Last July, the Attorney General told residents who called with concerns about how their complaints with the Department of Health were handled that the office would launch a formal investigation. But since then, no evidence of any substantive investigation has surfaced. Food & Water …
Researchers say aborted fetal cells in vaccines causing increase in autism
Autism is a brain disorder that causes symptoms that typically become noticeable no later than age three. It affects a child’s ability to communicate both verbally and non-verbally and also affects social interactions and relationships. In addition, autism can dramatically lower a child’s interest in socializing and may cause a preoccupation with certain activities, toys or routines. It is no …
Yes, Those Earthquakes Are Caused by Fracking Boom, Studies Confirm By Zahra Hirji
The surge in earthquakes shaking Oklahoma, Texas and other parts of the nation’s mid-section are likely caused by million of gallons of toxic oil and gas wastewater being disposed of underground, two new studies have found. Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder and the United States Geological Survey analyzed data from earthquakes and more than 106,000 active injection wells across …
Long-Awaited EPA Study Says Fracking Pollutes Drinking Water – Anastasia Pantsios
In 2010, Congress commissioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to study the impact of fracking on drinking water. The U.S. EPA released its long-awaited final draft of its report today, assessing how fracking for oil and gas can impact access to safe drinking water. The report refuted the conclusion arrived at by the U.S. EPA’s 2004 study that fracking poses no threat to drinking water, a conclusion used to exempt the …
Dimock, PA Lawsuit Trial-Bound as Study Links Fracking to Water Contamination in Neighboring County – Steve Horn
A recent peer-reviewed study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has confirmed what many fracking critics have argued for years: drilling operations associated with hydraulic fracturing (“fracking) for oil and gas can contaminate groundwater. For the study, researchers examined groundwater contamination incidents at three homes in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale basin in Bradford County. As The New York Times explained, the water samples showed …
Fracking-Induced Earthquakes Highlighted in New USGS Map – Lauren McCauley
The U.S. Geological Survey on Thursday released a landmark new study and map highlighting the location and frequency of earthquakes thought to be caused by human activities such as drilling or hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. In a statement, the USGS said that the sharp increase in earthquake activity in the central and eastern United States since 2009 “is linked to industrial operations …
NPR’s Gas Pains: Teaming Up with the Fossil Fuel Industry – STAN COX
In the past few years, listeners to National Public Radio have been hearing frequent announcements that “America’s natural gas” is an underwriter of NPR programming. These spots, created by America’s Natural Gas Alliance, an industry group, claim that increased use of gas is reducing greenhouse emissions and making the world a greener place. Yesterday, NPR ombudsman Elizabeth Jensen addressed the numerous complaints …
Insufficient Data and Loose Regulations Worsen Fracking’s Impact, Studies Find
A slew of studies released this week, each examining different aspects of the fossil fuel extraction method known as ‘fracking,’ provide new evidence of problems with the practice. The first, an investigation by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the FracTracker Alliance into oil and gas company violations, found that information about such transgressions is only publicly accessible in three …
Insufficient Data and Loose Regulations Worsen Fracking’s Impact, Studies Find
‘Marcellus shale waste is the elephant in the room that gas operators and regulators alike ignore,’ says environmentalist by Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams A slew of studies released this week, each examining different aspects of the fossil fuel extraction method known as ‘fracking,’ provide new evidence of problems with the practice. The first, an investigation by the Natural Resources Defense …
Staggering Rise in Fracking Earthquakes Triggers Kansas to Take Action
It seems unlikely that Kansas, known as one of the most conservative states in the U.S. and home to fossil fuel barons the Koch Brothers, would take action against the oil and gas industries. But in the face of a new wave of earthquakes attributed to the underground injection of fracking wastewater, its industry regulating body, the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC), ordered a reduction …