About 2,000 opponents of fracking rallied Monday outside New York’s Capitol, and a new statewide poll found a slight increase in voters statewide who oppose the method of drilling for natural gas. The demonstrators cheered announcement of the poll results while urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to permanently ban hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in New

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Although natural gas burns much cleaner than other fuels, there is a problem with the extraction of it from the shale deposits. The extraction methods, called fracking, are poorly regulated and therefore are causing many serious environmental and human health problems. Click on this Headline for more on this story from Nancy Alderman.

On Wednesday, members of Capitalism vs. the Climate unfurled a banner from the bridge connecting the State Capitol and Legislative Office Building. The banner said: “We Will Not Let You Dam Our Rivers, Frack our Land, Sell Our Air.”

The banner referred to Gov. Malloy’s Comprehensive Energy Strategy, which demonstrators say expands Connecticut’s reliance on “false solutions.” Click on this Headline for more from CapitalismvsClimate.

Is shale gas’ ecological footprint really favorable? Asit Biswas and Julian Kirchherr argue that its exploitation requires and pollutes massive amounts of water and that the damages it cause far outweigh its benefits. New and more rigid regulations are needed to preserve America’s water resources.

Excerpts of Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies’ panel discussion on climate change: U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., assistant professor of atmospheric chemistry at Yale, and Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale School of Forestry’s Project on Climate Change, recorded and produced by Melinda Tuhus

New York needs to be diligent where Pennsylvania has been carelessNow that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has stopped the clock on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in order to give his health commissioner more time to study its potential problems, medical professionals in other states where fracking has arrived have a chance to weigh in. New

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Although natural gas burns much cleaner than other fuels, the extraction of it remains extremely problematic. The extraction methods, called fracking, are poorly regulated and are causing many serious environmental problems.

Promoters of modern drilling and fracking celebrate the industry’s newfound ability to extract oil and natural gas from shale and other tight rock formations, calling it an energy “revolution,” a “paradigm-shifter,” a “rebirth” and a “game changer.” One recent report claims that North America might soon become “the new Middle East,” a net exporter of

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PITTSBURGH (AP) — Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University say a water quality problem in the Monongahela River that may have been linked to Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling is going away. Regulators contend that water and air pollution problems are rare, but environmental groups and some scientists say there hasn’t been enough research on those

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Scientists studying the fault beneath the Spanish city of Lorca say that groundwater removal may be implicated in a deadly 2011 earthquake there. Detailed surface maps from satellite studies allowed them to infer which parts of the ground moved where. They report in Nature Geoscience that those shifts correlate with locations where water has been

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Geologists have long known about huge natural gas deposits trapped in shale rock formations, but it is only over the past decade that energy companies have combined two established technologies to unlock this resource. Watch this video on how Chevron uses horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to what it calls “safely produce natural gas from

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The state’s latest grab for Marcellus Shale money could turn some colleges into industrial zones. —By Sydney Brownstone Last year, when Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett suggested offsetting college tuition fees by leasing parts of state-owned college campuses to natural gas drillers, more than a few Pennsylvanians were left blinking and rubbing their eyes. But it

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Connecticut Fund for the Environment said they are concerned that Gov. Malloy’s new Comprehensive Energy Strategy, which promotes a major conversion to natural gas. They say it’s “short-sighted,” pointing out that “In the last decade the country has paid the price for our attachment to oil.”

Everyone should be concerned about the governor of this state’s infatuation with natural gas. Just because it’s “natural” doesn’t mean it’s good for us.

Amid controversy, New York will embark on a health impacts study, but residents living in the gaslands are already speaking out about their experiences. The ethics of medicine are guided by the Hippocratic Oath which commits medical professionals to the principle of health care based on, Primum non nocere — First do no harm .

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By Stephen Lacey on Sep 27, 2012 at 8:02 am A retest of water in Pavillion, Wyoming, found evidence of many of the same gases and compounds the Environmental Protection Agency used to link contamination there to hydraulic fracturing, the first finding of that kind. [Bloomberg] One topic you don’t hear much about from Republican

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During the 2012-2013 academic year Yale University will host many activities and discussions centering on hydraulic fracturing. Click on this Environmental Headline for more on this story and to listen to the discussion that includes Bill McKibben.

Big utilities have been using their big ad budgets to try to convince the American public that natural gas is the salvation for our country’s energy concerns. Quite simply, it is not. For more on this story, visit: Natural gas not the key to energy future – Connecticut Post.

This piece, by Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy Research Prize Fellowship recipient Vanessa Lamers, was originally published by Sage Magazine. It is reprinted here with permission. In Texas in 1999, as the story goes, an inattentive, possibly bored researcher flipped a switch that would change US energy for decades to come. Instead of

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Washington Post hides industry sponsorship of energy debateThe Washington Post had a two-page spread in its September 11 edition devoted to a “debate” on energy policy. But industry critics were missing from the picture. Why? Perhaps because the oil industry, undisclosed to Post readers, was sponsoring the discussion. “Ahead of 2012 Vote, Energy Generates a

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Several thousand people flooded New York’s state capital Monday, delivering letters to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office containing pledges to take nonviolent direct action against hydraulic-fracturing, or fracking, should gas companies be allowed to drill the state. Since taking office in 2010 Cuomo has been weighing whether to open New York up for fracking, but a

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