Documents Reveal Calvert County Signed Non-Disclosure Agreement with Company Proposing Cove Point LNG Terminal
Co-authored by Steve Horn and Caroline Selle DeSmogBlog has obtained documents revealing that the government of Calvert County, MD, signed a non-disclosure agreement on August 21, 2012, with Dominion Resources — the company proposing the Cove Point Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export terminal in Lusby, MD. The documents have raised concerns about transparency between the local […]
Colorado Communities Battle to Ban Fracking
Citizens in cities on Colorado’s front range are pushing back against the fracking boom by passing ballot measures to either prohibit the practice or ban it temporarily. The town of Longmont was the first in Colorado to ban fracking in 2012, when voters changed their city charter to prohibit it. Governor John Hickenlooper’s administration then […]
Disastrous Day in Fossil Fuels: WV coal slurry spill, PA gas well explosion, ND gas explosion
West Virginia officials are reporting that a coal slurry line at the Kanawha Eagle Prep Plant, which belongs to Patriot Coal, ruptured and spilled a toxic byproduct from the coal mining and preparation process into a creek that feeds the Kanawha River early this morning. More than 100,000 gallons of slurry spilled, and state officials […]
Business Coalition Announces Massive Offensive Against Environmental Protections
As the Obama administration begins to take action to rein in the emissions from the dirty energy industry, big business groups all over the country have announced that they aren’t willing to stop polluting without putting up a very serious fight. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Gas Association, and 74 other big business […]
Colorado Senate Passes Split Estate Disclosure Bill on Unanimous Vote
A bill requiring disclosure of a possible split estate condition upon the sale of residential property passed the Colorado Senate on January 24, 2014 in a unanimous vote. The consumer protection and fracking-awareness bill orders sellers of residential property to disclose to buyers whether the surface of the property may be separately owned from the mineral rights […]
GAO Hiding Crucial Documents From The Public While Calling for More Transparency in BLM Coal Leases
On Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office released a much-anticipated report about the Bureau of Land Management’s coal leasing program, revealing it has stiffed taxpayers over $200 million. The GAO blames a lack of competition in the bidding process, reliance on outdated and incomplete methods to determine “fair market value” of the coal reserves, a disregard […]
Harvard and Brown Are Wrong To Reject Calls To Divest From Fossil Fuels
This article was originally published in the February 17th issue of The Nation and is republished with permission. Read the full text of the editorial here. by James Lawrence Powell University presidents once spoke their conscience on matters of great public importance. In the early 1950s, many protested the loyalty oaths that required faculty members […]
Coal Industry Report On Social Cost Of Carbon Relies On Climate Science Denial
The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) seems a confusing and confused organisation of major coal miners and burners – even if you only consider its oxymoronic title. When the industry group was launched in 2008, the message was that coal — the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning globally — could […]
Tom Steyer to Secretary of State Kerry: New Review Necessary of "Defective" Keystone XL Environmental Assessment
With the State Department’s release of the final Keystone XL environmental review, attention is being refocused on apparent conflicts of interest within both the State Department itself and the consultancy hired to conduct the review. Upon the release of the review – which is formally called the final supplemental environmental impact statement (or FSEIS) – Tom […]
In Pavillion, Wyoming Water Contamination Case, Questions Continue To Swirl About Oil and Gas Industry's Role
A funny thing happened when Idaho Dept. of Lands Oil and Gas Program Manager Robert Johnson stepped to the microphone at a public hearing this past fall. He said something that many have long suspected, but few officials have actually been willing to say bluntly and publicly. He said that the oil and gas industry was […]