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Dangerous oil and gas industry exemption slipped into highway bill

Dangerous oil and gas industry exemption slipped i...

A landmark five-year, $287 billion highway bill moving in the Senate contains a poison pill provision that must be eliminated. The measure — which would be the largest highway legislation in history — is noteworthy for its inclusion of the first climate title in a surface transportation bill. The climate provisions are an important step toward addressing the urgent need to reduce transportation emissions and invest in...
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Inside Energy Questions: Is Fracking Dangerous?

Inside Energy Questions: Is Fracking Dangerous?

There are many hazards associated with oil and gas development: air and water pollution, accidents, and threats to mental health. Clearly, oil and gas development can be dangerous, but HOW dangerous? And for whom? That’s what we will try to lay out in this story, with some important caveats to keep in mind: Some hazards are very likely to happen; Some hazards have a low probability of happening Some hazards are very...
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BUT AT WHAT COST? -To many, the pipelines are a lifeline in impoverished Appalachia, bringing in jobs and money.

BUT AT WHAT COST? -To many, the pipelines are a li...

The first signs of change came to Belmont County several years ago, as natural gas extraction company trucks rumbled over the roads. Next came drilling rigs and pipelines for hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking. To many, the pipelines are a lifeline in impoverished Appalachia, bringing in jobs and money. Despite the economic boom, environmentalists and some residents are questioning the health and safety of...
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Millions of abandoned wells spark climate, safety fears

Millions of abandoned wells spark climate, safety ...

A couple of years ago, Charlie Brethauer started to smell gas in the backyard of his home. Figuring it was a leak from the service line that heats his garage, he grabbed a shovel and started digging in a patch of blackened soil about 20 feet from the back door of his rural home in Richland Township, Pa., 15 miles north of Pittsburgh. The shovel struck a plastic bucket covering the end of a vertical steel pipe. As he widened...
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Coal’s other dark side: Toxic ash that can poison water and people

Coal’s other dark side: Toxic ash that can poison ...

Workers who cleaned up a huge spill from a coal ash pond in Tennessee in 2008 are still suffering—and dying. The U.S. has 1,400 ash dumps. 11 Minute Read On December 22, ten years to the day after a dike ruptured at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant near Kingston, Tennessee, pouring more than a billion gallons of toxic coal ash into the Emory River, TVA took out a full-page ad in the local paper to congratulate itself...
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Germany Closes Its Last Active Coal Mine, Ending 200-year-old Industry

Germany Closes Its Last Active Coal Mine, Ending 2...

Germany will witness the end of an era Friday. Around mid-afternoon, a team of dusty miners will bring up the last lumps of hard coal mined in the country from the Prosper-Haniel mine in Bottrop, in the heart of Germany’s industrial northwest. It’s a bittersweet farewell for an area already down on its luck. Prosper-Haniel was the last operating hard coal mine in a region defined by that industry for 200 years. The Ruhr...
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An Epidemic Is Killing Thousands Of Coal Miners. Regulators Could Have Stopped It

An Epidemic Is Killing Thousands Of Coal Miners. R...

Greg Kelly at home in Delphia, Ky. A former coal miner, Kelly has an advanced stage of black lung disease known as complicated black lung or progressive massive fibrosis. Rich-Joseph Facun for NPR hide caption toggle caption Rich-Joseph Facun for NPR Greg Kelly at home in Delphia, Ky. A former coal miner, Kelly has an advanced stage of black lung disease known as complicated black lung or progressive massive fibrosis....
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How the energy boom shaped a small town in rural America – Amity and Properity

How the energy boom shaped a small town in rural A...

When a fracking company came to a small community in rural Pennsylvania, many people signed the lease that allowed the company to access the natural gas resources on their land. Among them was Stacey Haney, who at that time owned a small farm. Haney saw the lease as a way to support American energy, and like many other people, a way to get some extra money to support life. But money is not the only thing fracking brought to...
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Study: Water near fracked Wyo gas field disrupts hormones

Study: Water near fracked Wyo gas field disrupts h...

A study has found that polluted groundwater near a fracked Wyoming oil and gas field is more disruptive to human cells than tainted groundwater sampled near conventional oil and gas operations. The study by researchers at the University of Missouri and other institutions is believed to be the first to compare the effects of fracking-linked pollution to those of conventional oil and gas development pollution. Research found...
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Oil Spill Now Larger Than Paris Ravages Indonesian Island, 5 Dead

Oil Spill Now Larger Than Paris Ravages Indonesian...

An oil spill in Borneo that began over the past weekend has now spread across an area greater than the city of Paris and is heading out to the open ocean, the Indonesian government said. The spill, first reported on March 31, stems from a pipeline operated by state-owned oil firm Pertamina in the city of Balikpapan, in East Kalimantan province. A report released April 4 by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry said the...
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XTO Well in Powhatan Point Capped After 20 Days

XTO Well in Powhatan Point Capped After 20 Days

POWHATAN POINT — After weeks of work through inclement weather and the evacuation of 30 households following a well pad explosion Feb. 15, XTO Energy announced Wednesday that the well was successfully capped. In order to make the site safe for workers to plug the leak, XTO “flared,” or burned off excess gas, at the site. The mostly methane gas was directed to an excavated containment area and ignited. The gas burned through...
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Trump EPA Slammed for Ag Giant’s ‘Absurdly Low’ Pesticide Fine

Trump EPA Slammed for Ag Giant’s ‘Absu...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a settlement this week with Syngenta Seeds, LLC over violations of federal pesticide regulations at its farm in Kauai, Hawaii. The company, a subsidiary of Swiss biotech giant Syngenta AG, agreed to pay a civil penalty of $150,000 and spend another $400,000 on worker protection training sessions. “Reducing pesticide exposure for the millions of farmworkers who...
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Oil and gas association, environmental group team up on capping idle, abandoned wells

Oil and gas association, environmental group team ...

Ohio has more than 700 oil and gas wells that have never been plugged or were improperly plugged years ago, resulting in safety risks to children and environmental risks to groundwater and area streams. Nearly a third of them are in northwest Ohio, with most of the other problem areas near Cleveland and southeast Ohio. This Aug. 13, 2013, file photo shows a gas drilling rig at the Detweiler well in Salesville, Ohio....
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Pipeline explosion in Noble County

Pipeline explosion in Noble County

According to a press release from the Noble County EMA, at approximately 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, many area residents reported an explosion and fire to the 911 Center. Summerfield Volunteer Fire Department, Belle Valley Volunteer Fire Department, Caldwell Volunteer Fire Company, United Ambulance and the Noble County Sheriff’s Office were all sent to the scene as the Noble County EMA was notified. There are multiple pipelines in...
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Psychosocial implications of unconventional natural gas development: Quality of life in Ohio’s Guernsey and Noble Counties

Psychosocial implications of unconventional natura...

As unconventional natural gas development (UNGD) activities such as “fracking” have proliferated across the U.S., research has begun to examine their impacts on human life. Much scholarship has centered on possible health and environmental impacts. However, a range of plausible psychosocial impacts has begun to emerge. Utilizing grounded theory methods and data from qualitative interviews with residents of two counties in...
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