Archive for November 5th, 2011

U.S. shale boom seen casting long shadow over global energy landscape

Greenwire: The United States is in the early stages of a boom in domestic oil production, sparked by the same innovations in drilling technologies that tapped shale to spur a 20 percent spike in natural gas output. Shale oil production is already booming in western North Dakota where light crude production from the Bakken Shale formation is transforming the state economy. And there are signs it will spread in Texas, eastern Ohio and parts of northeastern Colorado and even Michigan. In all, experts say, 20...

Weird weather to keep on coming, experts say

Times Herald-Record: Scientists say the extreme weather is a by-product of climate change - and the Hudson Valley should expect more of it. "Every storm has an ingredient of climate change now," said Sacha Spector, director of conservation science for Scenic Hudson. "It's extremely unlikely that some of these storm events we are seeing would have happened when the earth was cooler." On Thursday night, Spector explained the scientific evidence behind climate change - and the potential effects for the Hudson Valley...

Halliburton sued over Cold War missile casing site

Reuters: Halliburton Co faces lawsuits over groundwater pollution near a now-closed facility in Oklahoma that cleaned missile casings for the U.S. Defense Department during the Cold War, the company said on Friday. Halliburton, which now specializes in oilfield services, said one of its units cleaned solid fuel from missile casings between 1965 and 1991 at a semi-rural facility on the north side of Duncan, Oklahoma. It was closed in the mid-1990s. A component of the fuel was ammonium perchlorate, a...

United Kingdom: ‘Lords of the Manor’ to cash in on ‘fracking’

Telegraph: Under historic laws, that go back to the Norman conquest, 'Lordships of the Manor' have the right to exploit minerals under common land around towns and villages or land that has been brought by someone else but is still on the ancient estate. However unless the mineral rights are registered with the Land Registry before October 2013 they could be lost. Accountants and estate agents are advising landowners to register their land as soon as possible in order to cash in on minerals like gravel,...

March Against Pipeline Planned

New York Times: Environmental groups are mobilizing for a demonstration at the White House on Sunday against the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline. A decision is expected from the State Department in coming months on whether to allow construction of the pipeline, which would carry heavy crude oil drawn from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. Environmentalists contend that extracting and burning the oil will increase greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to climate change. Some have expressed concern about potential...

Exxon Mobil says Montana spill to cost $135 million

Reuters: Exxon Mobil's response to a July oil spill into the Yellowstone River in Montana will cost a total of $135 million, the company said on Friday. Exxon Mobil said it has reached compensation agreements with over 95 percent of property owners who were affected by the spill, which released some 1,000 barrels of crude oil into the river. The leak occurred on July 1 on the Silvertip pipeline, in a section that ran under the Yellowstone River and carried crude oil to refineries in Billings, Montana....