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Six Arrested Attempting to Block Oil Train to Canada

EcoWatch: When police arrived last night to break up the peaceful protest, six people who refused to leave the scene were arrested after trying to destroy scaffolding with a chain saw. Local news media reported a surprisingly large number of law enforcement officials who responsed to the action, including troopers from the state police. Trains running through Maine carry crude from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota, where it is extracted--fracked--by blasting a high pressure mix of water, silica and...

11,000+ Massachusetts Residents Call for a Fracking Ban

EcoWatch: This morning, more than 11,000 residents called on Beacon Hill to ban the dirty drilling process of fracking, in petitions presented by Environment Massachusetts and its allies at a statehouse news conference. The petitions show wide support for H.788, a bill introduced by Rep. Kocot (D-MA) and Rep. Provost (D-MA) to ban fracking and the processing of its toxic wastewater in the commonwealth. “In states like Pennsylvania, we have already seen fracking contaminate drinking water and make nearby...

Duke Study Finds Higher Gas Levels in Drinking Water Wells Near Marcellus Fracking Sites

EcoWatch: Some homeowners living near shale gas wells appear to be at higher risk of drinking water contamination from stray gases, according to a new Duke University-led study, Increased Stray Gas Abundance in a Subset of Drinking Water Wells Near Marcellus Shale Gas Extraction. A Dimock, Pa., resident who did not want to be identified pours a glass of water taken from his well after the start of natural gas drilling in 2009. Photo credit: Reuters. The scientists analyzed 141 drinking water samples...

Construction of Keystone XL Pump Station in Oklahoma Shut Down by Activists

EcoWatch: Early this morning, eight individuals blocked construction of a pump station for TransCanada’s controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline on Seminole land-by-treaty in Oklahoma by locking on to equipment in the largest action yet by the Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance. Nine people have been arrested. They managed to shut down the site until a volunteer firefighter reportedly injured one of the lockdowners, who is now in an ambulance. Others participating in the action unlocked out of concerns...

During Record Drought, Frackers Outcompete Farmers for Water Supplies

EcoWatch: The impacts of 2013's severe drought are apparent across the nation in forests, on farms and on once snowy peaks. Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry is demanding unprecedented amounts of water for hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking. Fourth-generation Colorado farmer Kent Peppler told the Associated Press (AP) that he is fallowing some of his corn fields this year because he can’t afford to irrigate the land for the full growing season, in part because deep-pocketed energy companies...

Keystone XL Export Pipeline: Bad for Americans, Bad for the Economy

EcoWatch: The core talking points for the supporters of TransCanada`s Keystone XL pipeline center around U.S. domestic energy security and economic growth. However, Keystone is an "export pipeline" that will take tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, and pump it down to a tax-free zone in Texas and out to foreign markets. In other words, the European Union, China and Latin America get the oil, the foreign-owned oil companies get the cash and North Americans get a few jobs and oil spills! It`s a complicated...

How Corporations and Law Enforcement Are Spying on Environmentalists

EcoWatch: In February 2010, Tom Jiunta and a small group of residents in northeastern Pennsylvania formed the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition (GDAC), an environmental organization opposed to hydraulic fracturing in the region. The group sought to appeal to the widest possible audience, and was careful about striking a moderate tone. All members were asked to sign a code of conduct in which they pledged to carry themselves with “professionalism, dignity and kindness” as they worked to protect the environment...

Fracking Creates Water Scarcity Issues in Michigan

EcoWatch: Concerns about the impact to local groundwater by massive water use--on a scale never before seen in Michigan fracking operations--are coming to a head, as the plan for Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. to use 8.4 million gallons of water to fracture a single well has been stymied by a lack of water on site. Instead, the company is trucking water--nearly 1 million gallons of it in just one week--from the City of Kalkaska’s water system to meet its needs. This one fracking operation today is using more...

Two Months Later, Arkansas Residents Still Hurting From ExxonMobil Tar Sands Spill

EcoWatch: More than two months after ExxonMobil’s 65-year-old Pegasus pipeline burst and spewed a gusher of thick Canadian tar sands oil through Mayflower, AR, and into a marsh on Lake Conway--the state’s most popular fishing spot--residents are still complaining of health problems and are worried about poisonous impacts on wildlife and in the environment. Many locals and some scientists have little faith in the continuous rosy assurances from Exxon and the Unified Command that testing results show the environment...

Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Still Spilling After Nearly a Decade

EcoWatch: The 2013 hurricane season is now upon us, and it`s predicted to be a doozy this year. Which got us to thinking ... Remember that strange, persistent little oil slick about 12 miles offshore that SkyTruth discovered on satellite imagery during the BP oil spill in 2010, that was not related to BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster? Remember how SouthWings flew photographer J. Henry Fair out there and came across a deepwater drill rig with a miles-long oil slick next to it? When we published this, an...