Raiding the Bread Basket: Use and Abuse of the Mississippi River Basin
"Industrial agricultural has significant socioeconomic and environmental costs, although scientists are bringing solutions."
Source: NatGeo News, 01/26/2012
Pollution
Obama Vows Disclosure of Toxic Fracking Secrets on Federal Land
Most current fracking operations happen on non-federal lands. But on federal lands, things are different — Obama intends to require disclosure of fluids as a condition of new leases for fracking on federal lands. If it takes place, this could push the ingredient lists further into the open.
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Lejeune Secrecy May Have Caused Dead Marines
CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has been investigating a Navy cover-up of cancer-causing drinking water at its Lejeune, NC, base. Now, Project on Government Oversight has released a January 5, 2012, letter from Marine Major General J.A. Kessler asking ATSDR to redact its report in the name of "force protection."
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"Shale Gas a Bridge to More Global Warming"
"UXBRIDGE, Canada -- Hundreds of thousands of shale gas wells are being "fracked" in the United States and Canada, allowing large amounts of methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas, to escape into the atmosphere, new studies have shown. Shale gas production results in 40 to 60 percent more global warming emissions than conventional gas, said Robert Howarth of Cornell University in New York State."
Source: IPS, 01/25/2012
"More States Ordering Disclosure of Fracking Chemicals"
"In a belated attempt to soothe public suspicion about shale-gas drilling, state regulators increasingly are forcing natural gas producers to disclose the chemicals used to hydraulically fracture natural gas wells."
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, 01/23/2012
"Obama Administration Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline"
"President Obama, denouncing a 'rushed and arbitrary deadline' set by congressional Republicans, announced Wednesday that he was rejecting a Canadian firm's application for a permit to build and operate the Keystone XL pipeline, a massive project that would have stretched from Canada's oil sands to refineries in Texas.
Source: Wash Post, 01/19/2012
EPA To Release Dioxin Noncancer Risk Reassessment
The assessments, expected late January 2012, could have wide-ranging direct and indirect effects in realms such as toxic site cleanups, brownfield development, manufacturing processes, domestic food production and sales, and international trade of food and possibly other goods.
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"Problems Plague Cleanup at Hanford Nuclear Waste Site"
"HANFORD SITE, Wash. – Seven decades after scientists came here during World War II to create plutonium for the first atomic bomb, a new generation is struggling with an even more daunting task: cleaning up the radioactive mess."
Source: USA TODAY, 01/18/2012
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