Tag: hydraulic facturing

Authors of a new study published recently in Geophysical Research Letters found that the natural-gas industry is failing to prevent significant amounts of its product from escaping into the air every day. The leaks result in a loss of millions of dollars in potential profits and raise anew questions about the true environmental benefits that come from relying increasingly on gas as an energy source.

Harmful, smog-causing emissions from the natural gas drilling process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, should be curtailed as swiftly as possible by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), conservation groups argued at an EPA meeting in Denver on Wednesday.

Whether it’s called hydraulic fracturing, hydro-fracking or just plain fracking, the controversial but common natural gas drilling process remains the focus of intense public scrutiny and public awareness events from Colorado to New York, including a couple of unique fracking functions set for this weekend.

A U.S. Geological Survey scientist Friday said large earthquakes in unusual places like Virginia and southern Colorado earlier this week aren’t typically associated with the controversial natural gas drilling process called hydraulic fracturing.

Monday’s 5.3-magnitude earthquake southwest of Trinidad in southern Colorado is being called rare but “consistent with the region and historic activity in the area,” and so far no official connection is being made to gas drilling -- or hydraulic fracturing -- of relatively shallow coal-bed methane gas reserves in the area.

Anti-gas-drilling activists in Colorado are pointing to a 1984 case in West Virginia as the smoking gun proving the industry and government agencies that regulate it have been lying all along about hydraulic fracturing contaminating groundwater supplies.

Kids across America have some tough choices to make this summer, like which Crayola crayon should be used to depict benzene, or diesel fuel, or any of the 29 known human carcinogens used by the natural gas industry in the hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, process. Introducing, courtesy of Talisman Energy, a hydraulic fracturing cartoon character and coloring book called Talisman Terry.

As Colorado oil and gas officials continue to resist attempts by some members of the state’s congressional delegation to pass federal law compelling the disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, Texas, of all places, could soon establish a national model for fracking transparency.

Colorado’s top oil and gas regulator and the head of one of the state’s leading industry lobbying groups both say federal legislation compelling disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing would not have prevented the state’s worst cases of groundwater contamination.

Colorado conservation groups are rallying the troops in Golden today for one of only three forums nationwide that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is conducting on the controversial natural gas drilling process called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” BLM director Bob Abbey is weighing whether to require public disclosure of chemicals used in fracking operations on federal lands. Today’s BLM meeting will be held from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Denver Marriott West in Golden.