The fracking boom happened so quickly that nobody had any time to deal with the consequences. Not only did politicians not anticipate regulations, allowing the industry to operate in a kind of free-fire zone, but the industry didn’t recognize the massive amounts of limited resources they would need to continue fracking in the future. Specifically, [...]

For all the influence and power in fracking today, if the US were to export natural gas that would magnify a hundred fold. Think about the difference between Saudi Arabia only supplying their domestic industries with oil fuel and supplying the world. There’s no comparison. Natural gas has traditionally been very difficult to export, but [...]

Anyone hoping to see an end to our policies of encouraging the burning of fossil fuels certainly winced at the energy section of last night’s debate, which did not mention climate change but did feature both candidates trying to convince the country that they would deliver more coal and oil-based domestic energy.

Here’s a story about the power of independent, outside movements to advance policy arguments. The story about fracking in New York was that it would simply happen, without much resistance from the state government. The special interests were too powerful, there was too much money at stake. In fact, nationally, the fracking boom is key [...]

The biggest reason for the decline in greenhouse gas emissions over the past couple years is the replacement of dirty coal with natural gas to generate electricity. But this will not last if the fracking that has unlocked so much natural gas leads to the release of underground methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Among all [...]

A new study of the Marcellus Shale region, which has been one of the most prominent places for hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, shows that fluids buried deep under the surface are seeping into drinking water. The study does not indict fracking as the cause or claim that fracking fluids are among those finding their [...]

Hydraulic fracturing, the process of extracting natural gas from rock and shale by hitting it with high-pressure water and chemicals to cause large fissures, has come to Southern California, despite the major earthquake potential here and the documented evidence that fracking leads to elevated seismic activity. Yesterday, Josh Fox, the Oscar-nominated director behind the anti-fracking [...]

This is a couple days old, but it’s pretty remarkable, so let’s have at it. The Obama Administration has been threatening for weeks to issue “tough” guidelines on hydraulic fracturing, the first federal regulations on the practice. They always paired this with an invocation of support for the “safe and responsible production of domestic natural [...]

Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog 19th Century German statesman Otto von Bismarck once said, “If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.” The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), put on the map by the Center for Media and Democracy in its “ALEC Exposed” project, is the archetype of von Bismarck’s truism. So too are the fracking [...]

A Cross-Post from DeSmogBlog A new chapter has been added to the shale gas industry’s eco-terrorism, counterinsurgency and psychological operations saga. In March, NBC News investigative reporter Michael Isikoff revealed that many prominent U.S. public officials are on the payroll of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), a group labeled by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization. These [...]

The EPA will announce the first federal rules against fracking. Curiously, however, the rules have nothing to do with the Clean Water Act, but seek to reduce the air pollution around fracking sites. This is also a problem, but most of the attention around the corrosive side effects of fracking has revolved around water contamination. [...]