Natrona County District Judge Catherine Wilking ruled March 25, 2013, that a company could withhold as trade secret the ingredients used in the fluids it pumped under high pressure to fracture gas- and oil-bearing rock. Environmentalists had sought to make the ingredient list public.
The unsealed documents revealed that the potential plaintiffs had received $750,000 from frackers Range Resources, which has been accused of high-handed tactics. The case is important in several respects — even beyond the broader controversy over sealing of civil settlements.
The State Department is trying to hide at least two different kinds of information about its Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL pipeline, including graying out key information in the work histories of people involved in the consultation process.
The Environmental Law Institute offers via teleconference/webinar an expert panel which will discuss the current state of EPA audit policies at the Federal and state levels and best practices moving forward.
"By the time today's K-12 students grow up, the challenges posed by climate change are expected to be severe and sweeping. Now, for the first time, new federal science standards due out this month will recommend that U.S. public school students learn about this climatic shift taking place."
"KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The federal government has agreed to pay 90 percent of the cost of developing a plan to clean up toxic groundwater pollution at a former U.S. Air Force base in central Kansas, according to court documents filed Tuesday."
"Louisiana has seen two of the top 10 highest hurricane storm surge levels along the Gulf of Mexico coast in modern times, but it’s Pass Christian, Miss., that has experienced the top two surge heights -- 28 feet during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and 24.6 feet during Hurricane Camille in 1969 -- according to a new database developed by researchers at Louisiana State University."
"DES MOINES, Iowa -- A federal appeals court has sided with a group of Iowa cities challenging Environmental Protection Agency wastewater treatment rules that would have forced cities across the country to spend billions of dollars if the court had upheld them."
"SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California officials vowed Tuesday to move forward on a new fire safety rule that could eliminate the use of toxic flame retardants in household furniture and baby products sold nationwide."
"CARLSBAD, N.M. -- Just after the local water board announced this month that its farmers would get only one-tenth of their normal water allotment this year, Ronnie Walterscheid, 53, stood up and called on his elected representatives to declare a water war on their upstream neighbors."
