The oil and gas industry is slurping up available groundwater in parts of South Texas where population growth is exploding and global warming may diminish rainfall. There may be a serious crunch ahead.
"Talisman Energy has resumed its Marcellus drilling operations in Pennsylvania, a week after one of the company's gas wells experienced a blowout that caused an uncontrolled discharge of sand and fracking fluids onto state forest lands in Tioga County."
"A massive feat of engineering by any measure, the Keystone pipeline expansion project would transport crude oil close to 1,700 miles from "oil sands" in the icy reaches of Hardisty, Alberta, down through the Great Plains to the refineries of Port Arthur, Tex. In doing so, the giant pipe also promises to allay some fears about U.S. energy security: The oil will come from a trusted ally, and its cross-continental path avoids visions of another deep-sea drilling disaster."
"The Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday that cars and light trucks from the 2001 model year onward can safely use a blend of 15 percent ethanol mixed with gasoline, up from the 10 percent standard now in effect in much of the country. The decision expands the pool of vehicles that could use such a fuel to about 62 percent of the total on the roads."
"Representative Edward Markey on Thursday asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to launch an immediate investigation into a $16 billion share-swap plan between BP and state-owned Russian oil firm Rosneft."
Quite a few mayors are praising the Energy Department efficiency and conservation block grants authorized under the economic stimulus -- and are seeking to make it permanent.
"The EV Cup -- the world's first circuit race series for zero-emission electric vehicles -- will hold its inaugural season of seven races this summer and fall."
Arch Coal's announcement of a second West Coast shipping terminal signals a trend toward increasing exports of strip-mined western coal to Asian nations like China, where demand outstrips supply. The implications for greenhouse emissions and accounting schemes for controlling them are huge.
A BP deal with the biggest Russian oil company to develop Arctic Oil could have huge geopolitical and environmental repercussions.
