Author Archive

New Documentary Celebrates the Voices of the Tar Sands Blockade

EcoWatch: Blockadia Rising: Voices of the Tar Sands Blockade is an hour-long documentary film written and directed by Garrett Graham in collaboration with the Tar Sands Blockade and features exclusive video footage shot by the blockaders during the course of more than six months of sustained resistance. In 2012, Texas landowners and environmental activists came together to organize resistance against a dangerous pipeline being built by a Canadian corporation to bring tar sands oil from Alberta Canada to...

Tennessee Riverkeeper Files Intent to Sue Over Company’s Failure to Comply with Clean Water Act

EcoWatch: Tennessee Riverkeeper has announced its intention to file a federal lawsuit to abate pollution from the old Florence Landfill site in Florence, Alabama. The notice of intent to sue, mailed by Tennessee Riverkeeper to Hensley-Graves Holdings, LLC, is a statutory requirement 60 days prior to the filing of a lawsuit under both the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). “Although the old Florence Landfill off West Irvine Avenue has been closed since 1987,...

Day 3: Fracking Pipeline Protest Gains Momentum

EcoWatch: Gifford Pinchot, from Orange County, NY, is staging a tree sit on a suspended platform to prevent clearcutting for construction of the Northeast Upgrade Project of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) between Foster Hill and Cummins Hill roads in Pike County, Pennsylvania, near the boarder of New Jersey. The Northeast Upgrade Project would transport Marcellus Shale gas from fracking wells along Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier. Fracking is a controversial method of extracting natural gas, as it has been...

Groundbreaking Reports Show Fracking is a Risky Short-Term Bubble

EcoWatch: Energy Policy Forum and Post Carbon Institute have released two groundbreaking reports that belie energy industry claims of U.S. energy independence as a result of newly accessible shale gas and shale (tight) oil. The report findings are based on an unprecedented analysis of more than 60,000 U.S. shale oil and gas wells and an investigation of the role of Wall Street investment banks in the explosive growth of fracking for natural gas. Drill Baby Drill: Can Unconventional Fuels Usher in a New...

Direct Action Under Way Protesting Fracking Pipeline

EcoWatch: Early this morning, two local youth engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience by locking themselves to the entrance gate of the Delaware State Forest in eastern Pennsylvania which is being used for access by pipeline workers to clearcut trees for the construction of the Northeast Upgrade Project of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline. Allison Petryk, of Vernon, NJ, and Alex Lotorto, of Milford, PA, have locked themselves to the entrance gate of the Delaware State Forest in eastern Pennsylvania which is...

More Than 35,000 March at Forward on Climate Rally

EcoWatch: Today, during President’s Day weekend, more than 35,000 people are marching to the President`s doorstep to support immediate action to contain climate change. People from more than 30 states across the country whose land, homes and health is being threatened by the climate crisis, as well as students, scientists, indigenous community members and many others are participating in this largest climate rally in U.S. history. (L-R): Lisa Montellongo, Cherokee, North Carolina; Missy Crow, Cherokee,...

Feds Charge Man in Fracking Wastewater Dumping Case

EcoWatch: Federal prosecutors have charged a Northeast Ohio man with violating the federal Clean Water Act after dumping at least 20,000 gallons of toxic and potentially radioactive fracking wastewater into a storm drain that empties into a tributary of the Mahoning River in Youngstown, Ohio. The U.S. Attorney`s Office announced the charge yesterday against 62-year-old Ben Lupo of Poland, Ohio. He pleaded not guilty. "These charges today should serve as a warning to anyone that places their personal...

FDA Extends Comment Period for GE Salmon

EcoWatch: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday announced that it is extending the mandatory public comment period on the approval of genetically engineered (GE) salmon. Originally scheduled to end on Feb. 25, the public comment period, with two documents available for comment in the Federal Register, will now close on April 26. The salmon would be the first GE food given the green light for human consumption. The extension is for two documents related to the approval of Massachusetts company...

Ad in the New York Times Calls for a ‘Time Out’ on LNG Exports

EcoWatch: In a half-page ad today in The New York Times, more than 40 groups and high-profile individuals calll on President Obama to take a “time out” in the headlong run to export more than 40 percent of America’s natural gas for use by other nations. The ad--signed by the Civil Society Institute, Sierra Club, Physicians Scientists Engineers for Healthy Energy, Gasland director Josh Fox, actor Mark Ruffalo and many others--urges Americans to go to to tell President Obama to take a closer look at liquefied...

New Jersey State Legislators Send Letter to NY Gov. Cuomo Urging Him to Ban Fracking

EcoWatch: In addition to 15 New Jersey state legislators sending a letter to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo today urging him to ban fracking in his state, this full-page ad ran in the Times Union. Fifteen New Jersey state legislators sent a letter to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo today urging him to ban the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing or fracking in his state for the sake of public health and environmental protection throughout the region. In the letter, they state that they have “deep concerns...