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Sanders Calls Out Clinton’s Silence on Keystone XL
Posted by EcoWatch: Anastasia Pantsios on July 15th, 2015
EcoWatch: Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton met behind closed doors with House and Senate Democrats Tuesday to talk about her positions on key issues. According to the members of Congress who attended the lunch, she told them that climate change can be a winning issue for Democrats, especially among younger voters, if they can develop a message to persuade voters that action is essential. “She was incredible,” said Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin. “She really relates [climate change] to the current political...
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Epic Drought Blamed for Ban on Fireworks in Bone-Dry States
Posted by EcoWatch: Anastasia Pantsios on July 3rd, 2015
EcoWatch: Gathering in a local park with neighbors to watch city-sponsored fireworks or shooting off (sometimes illegal) fireworks in the backyard have become a time-honored way of celebrating the 4th. But thanks to the ongoing drought, some communities on the west coast have eliminated their city-sponsored fireworks displays while many more have clamped down on personal fireworks. And fire departments across the country are on high alert over concern that illegal fireworks could fuel brush fires that turn...
Cancer-Causing Chemicals Found in Drinking Water Texas Fracking Sites
Posted by EcoWatch: Anastasia Pantsios on June 22nd, 2015
EcoWatch: On June 4, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a report on how fracking for oil and gas can impact access to safe drinking water. Although the report claims not to have found any “widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States,” a new study in Texas provides more evidence that contamination of drinking water from fracking might be occurring. A research team at the University of Texas at Arlington has published a peer-reviewed study, A Comprehensive...
Is the Fracking Boom Coming to an End?
Posted by EcoWatch: Anastasia Pantsios on June 9th, 2015
EcoWatch: Since fracking began its boom period in the last decade, its supporters have promoted it as the answer to all of the U.S.’s energy issues. It would free us from dependence on foreign oil, they said, thereby strengthening national security. And in fact, the U.S. has become the world’s largest exporter of fossil fuels, while prices at the gas pump have dropped steeply as fracked oil and gas production has exploded. States like Texas, Colorado, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Ohio have welcomed frackers...
It’s Official EPA Says Fracking Pollutes Drinking Water
Posted by EcoWatch: Anastasia Pantsios on June 4th, 2015
EcoWatch: In 2010, Congress commissioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to study the impact of fracking on drinking water. The U.S. EPA released its long-awaited final draft of its report today, assessing how fracking for oil and gas can impact access to safe drinking water. The report refuted the conclusion arrived at by the U.S. EPA`s 2004 study that fracking poses no threat to drinking water, a conclusion used to exempt the fracking process from the Safe Drinking Water Act.
The report...
3 Arrested in Denton As Oklahoma Joins Texas in Banning Fracking Bans
Posted by EcoWatch: Anastasia Pantsios on June 2nd, 2015
EcoWatch: The movement by states to block local citizen input into fracking operations in their backyards has spread from Texas to Oklahoma. With concerns rising after a dramatic increase in earthquakes tied to fracking injection wells, Gov. Mary Fallin signed into law Monday a bill that would block cities and counties from enacting any restrictions on drilling, fracking, pipeline construction or the disposal of the wastewater byproduct of drilling--the injection wells that have been linked to the Oklahoma...
Surreal Aerial Photos Show Impact From Fracking
Posted by EcoWatch: Anastasia Pantsios on December 15th, 2014
EcoWatch: Sometimes it takes a bird’s eye view to get a sense of the full scope of what’s being done to our land in pursuit of profit.
A few weeks ago we ran some photos by artist Mishka Henner who creates projects that make people think about how we interact with our environment. Those photos showed industrial-scale feed lots, factory farms where thousands of animals are raised, taken from the air. He discovered them while flying over the country working on another project: aerial photos of oil drilling...
California Experiences Worst Drought in 1,200 Years
Posted by EcoWatch: Anastasia Pantsios on December 5th, 2014
EcoWatch: While rain this week provided California with some relief from a long spell of high temperatures and dry weather, it scarcely made a dent in the state’s multi-year drought. And they’ll hardly be encouraged by a new study, which says the drought is the worst in the region in 1,200 years.
In the study published this week in the American Geophysical Union’s Geophysical Research Letters, researchers Daniel Griffin, University of Minnesota assistant professor and Climate & Global Change fellow of the...
Native Americans Arrested Following Keystone XL Pipeline Vote
Posted by EcoWatch: Anastasia Pantsios on November 19th, 2014
EcoWatch: Anyone following the Keystone XL pipeline vote in the Senate yesterday heard what appeared to be chanting or singing in the background when the final tally of 41-59 was announced, signaling that approval of the pipeline had failed to clear the bar of 60 votes and that congressional approval of the pipeline was delayed for the time being.
That sound was coming from Native Americans in the gallery, singing a traditional tribal tune. Five of them were removed from the gallery and arrested.
According...
Ohio Singled Out for Worst Fracking Waste Disposal Practices
Posted by EcoWatch: Anastasia Pantsios on September 25th, 2014
EcoWatch: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report this week showing that Ohio was the only state among eight studied that allows waste fluids from oil and gas wells to be disposed of without disclosure of the chemicals it contains.
The report, created as a request by seven Democratic U.S. Senators and Congresspersons, studied eight states where fracking has become widespread--California, Colorado, Kentucky, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas. All but Ohio required...