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California Plans Tighter Control of Fracking, but Not Enough for Some
Posted by New York Times: KATE GALBRAITH on December 14th, 2013
New York Times: California drillers eager to use hydraulic fracturing to tap the nation’s largest oil shale formation will face comprehensive regulation for the first time next year under rules issued this week. The rules take effect on Jan. 1, though they will be replaced a year later by permanent regulations that are still being developed but are expected to be similar. In September, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that established the outlines for the regulations. The new rules require drillers to alert neighboring...
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Wyoming’s Strong Fracking Rules May Be a Model
Posted by New York Times: KATE GALBRAITH on November 22nd, 2013
New York Times: In energy-friendly Wyoming, oil and gas companies are getting a clear message: Drill, baby, drill — but carefully. Last week, state regulators approved one of the nation’s strongest requirements for testing water wells near drilling sites. The measure is intended to address concerns that groundwater can become contaminated from drilling activities. It is the latest of several groundbreaking regulations related to energy production issued by Wyoming, which in 2010 became the first state to require...
Wildfires and Climate Change
Posted by New York Times: KATE GALBRAITH on September 4th, 2013
New York Times: The huge wildfire scorching one of America’s most beloved national parks, Yosemite, has rained ash on San Francisco’s water supply and jolted the nation. Experts say this is just a foretaste of major fires to come, in the United States and much of the world. Increasing incursions by humans into forests, coupled with altered forest ecology and climate change, will make fires bigger and more destructive, with implications for air quality as well as homes and infrastructure. “We face the increased...
Time for Texas to Get Ready for the Shale Boom
Posted by New York Times: KATE GALBRAITH on April 27th, 2013
New York Times: About a year ago, talk began circulating in this West Texas town about a huge oil-producing formation called the Cline Shale, east of the traditional drilling areas around Midland. Then the oilmen and their rigs arrived. Now homes and hotels are sprouting, “help wanted” signs have multiplied, and a major drilling company has cleared land to build an office and equipment yard. “It is coming, and it is big,” said Greg Wortham, the mayor of Sweetwater, who also serves as executive director of the...
Texas Commission That Oversees Drilling Is Being Overhauled, Even in Name
Posted by New York Times: KATE GALBRAITH on January 25th, 2013
New York Times: The Railroad Commission of Texas regulates one of the most advanced industries in the world — oil and gas drilling. Yet the commission’s software systems, many of its rules and even its name are from another era. As the 122-year-old agency confronts a drilling boom that is altering the state and national economies, an overhaul of its operations is under way. Its old mainframe computer system will be upgraded with modern digital storage, clearing the way for a more user-friendly Web site. Decades-old...
United States: Even After Rains, Facing Long-Term Water Needs
Posted by New York Times: KATE GALBRAITH on October 7th, 2012
New York Times: With its pretty rivers and lakes, this city of 95,000 people is sometimes called the oasis of West Texas. But San Angelo recently came within a year of running out of water, as it faced a severe drought that produced brown lawns, dying bushes and fear. “Who wants to pull up to a hotel and it’s dead?” said Bob Banskter, general manager of the Rodeway Inn in San Angelo, referring to the state of the landscaping. It was late September, a day after City Council members had voted to ban the use of outdoor...
New Texas Rule to Unlock Secrets of Hydraulic Fracturing
Posted by New York Times: KATE GALBRAITH on January 14th, 2012
New York Times: Starting Feb. 1, drilling operators in Texas will have to report many of the chemicals used in the process known as hydraulic fracturing. Environmentalists and landowners are looking forward to learning what acids, hydroxides and other materials have gone into a given well. But a less-publicized part of the new regulation is what some experts are most interested in: the mandatory disclosure of the amount of water needed to “frack” each well. Experts call this an invaluable tool as they evaluate...
Dozens of Texas Species in Line to Be Studied as Endangered this is a test application please ntrhhf
Posted by New York Times: KATE GALBRAITH on January 6th, 2012
New York Times: Near a glade of blackened pines, a Ph.D. student at Texas State University used microchip technology to search for an endangered Houston toad. Her device beeped as she held it over a carpet of pine needles, and after a bit of digging, a live toad emerged, half-buried in dirt. The creature was waiting for warmer, wetter weather before mating, but its species’ future is grim. The huge wildfires that swept through Bastrop County last fall may wipe it out. “That was an extinction-level event,” said...
In Texas, Questions of Drought and Climate Change
Posted by New York Times: KATE GALBRAITH on April 22nd, 2011
New York Times: Kate Galbraith Grass at the City Hall in Midland, Tex., may not fare as well under outdoor watering restrictions issued because of a severe drought.
The severe drought across Texas has hit the oil and gas city of Midland especially hard, as I reported in Friday`s New York Times and Texas Tribune. Since Oct. 1, Midland has received only 0.13 inches of rainfall -- making it "most likely the driest six-and-a-half-month period in recorded history," said David Hennig, a Midland-based meteorologist...