Next up for Keystone XL: the question of national interest will show that the tar sands pipeline must be rejected

Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, Director International Program, Washington, D.C. As the assessment of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline enters the final stages with the release of the final environmental review, there are a lot of questions about what we can expect. Bottom line: the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is a project that brings risk with no reward. The environmental review for the pipeline is one step and it has been contentious. ...

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/sclefkowitz/next_up_for_keystone_xl_

Shell Suspends 2014 Offshore Drilling Plans In Arctic]

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/30/3225831/shell-arctic-drill

Why President Obama?s Natural Gas ?Bridge? May Be On The Verge Of Collapse]

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/30/3224951/obama-sotu-natural

A Georgia Republican Is Working To Increase Access To Rooftop Solar Power

CREDIT: ShutterstockA Georgia state lawmaker on Tuesday introduced legislation that would encourage more solar power in the state by making the solar panel purchase process more like buying a car ? allowing citizens to lease, rather than buy, solar panels for their homes. Republican Rep. Mike Dudgeon, an electrical engineer, said the bill would let property owners lease solar panels instead of having to buy them with cash up front. Though the bil ...

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/30/3224161/solar-panel-leasin

Shell Suspends 2014 Offshore Drilling Plans In Arctic

In this Jan. 3, 2013 file photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, two life rafts sit on the beach adjacent as the conical drilling unit Kulluk sits grounded 40 miles southwest of Kodiak City, Alaska. Shell??s drill vessel Kulluk, a round barge with a derrick in its center, ran aground New Year?s Eve on the southeast side of Sitkalidak Island near Kodiak Island.CREDIT: AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, Petty Officer 2nd Class Zachary Painter, FileShell a ...

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/30/3225831/shell-arctic-drill

Cove Point is ?Keystone? of the East

For those of you in the Marcellus Shale region,?this is an urgent request that you mark your calendar for Thursday, February 20th and make plans to get to Baltimore and bring as many people with you as you can.?Why? Because fracking fighters like you from across the Mid-Atlantic are converging on February 20th to take a stand against the biggest single gas drilling threat we face: Cove Point. ??This proposed $3.8 billion export terminal would tak ...

http://grist.org/article/cove-point-is-keystone-of-the-east

BP Rig Supervisors Must Face Manslaughter Charges For Deepwater Horizon Deaths, Judge Rules

The Deepwater Horizon rig one day after it exploded April 21, 2010CREDIT: Herbert/APThe two BP supervisors on board the Deepwater Horizon rig who made the last critical decisions before its tragic and historic explosion in 2010 won?t be able to easily escape involuntary manslaughter charges over the deaths of eleven fellow workers, a Louisiana federal judge ruled Monday, saying the case should be decided by a jury. Donald J. Vidrine and Robert K ...

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/29/3220691/deepwater-death-ju

Fracking needed to find out if Wairoa's hiding oil

The drilling would show whether there was enough oil to justify the huge cost of hydraulic fracturing. NZ Energy development manager Ian Brown told .. ...

https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industrie

Energy state of Obama?s union: Drill? Frack? Cut carbon? ?All the above?

President Obama received a letter 10 days ago from the nation?s leading environmental organizations, urging him to stop opening American lands and waters to fossil fuel extraction. Tuesday?s State of the Union address shows that he was unmoved by their plea. Instead, the president doubled down on both his energy policy goals: taking a series of actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while ramping up domestic dirty energy production. Obama?s ...

http://grist.org/politics/energy-state-of-obamas-union-drill-frack-cut

Will Obama allow fracking to endanger his own water supply?]

http://ino.to/1eqQPw

Fracking: California Needs to Rethink the Benefit Analysis]

http://ino.to/1aWiuY

Fracking under Colorado's gold dome - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_24985758/fracking-under-colorados

FRACTURED ROMANIA ? A SHOCKING REALITY DEVELOPING IN SILENCE!

Most of the rigs on this map have been lately discovered by citizens and they are mostly feared to be for fracking. Most of them have been erected without any labelling, without displaying an information plate about the project, the society running it. Further more, the seismic testing activities started in many places in Romania without any papers from the environmental protection agencies. Romania has turned into a Wild?east?We fear the worst f ...

http://frackoffromania.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/fractured-romania-a-sh

Trains Carrying Fracked Oil May Pose Dangers To Bay Area ? CBS San Francisco

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/video/9719814-trains-carrying-fracked

Unexpected Source Calls For A Slowdown In Oil Booming North Dakota

Train derailment and fire west of Casselton, ND.CREDIT: Ken Pawluk / ASSOCIATED PRESSLast week?s derailment and explosion of an oil train in Casselton, North Dakota was enough to prompt a call for moderation from an unexpected source: Robert Harms, the chairman of North Dakota?s Republican party, who is also a consultant for the energy industry. Harms told Reuters Thursday that the state needed to take a ?moderated approach? after the crash, whic ...

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/07/3125191/slow-oil-boom-nort

California Lawmakers Urge Jerry Brown To Adopt A Fracking Moratorium

CREDIT: AP/Beck DiefenbachA group of California lawmakers is calling on Governor Jerry Brown to ban fracking until more research is done on the health and environmental impacts of the practice.Four California assemblymembers sent a letter to their governor asking him to put a hold on fracking while the state ?fully investigate[s] the science behind fracking for oil production.??The vast public health and safety implications of fracking, as well a ...

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/07/3126221/california-frackin

Oil company knew all along that it was transporting highly explosive chemicals

Days after a mile-long train?derailed and exploded in a ?giant fireball?, and following a similar incident in July that killed 47 people, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration announced Thursday that oil?fracked out of North Dakota's Bakken Shale -- the same oil behind both explosions -- was believed to contain more flammable, corrosive and toxic chemicals than ordinary crude oil.It was news to most of us, but not, as DeSmogB ...

http://www.salon.com/2014/01/06/oil_company_knew_all_along_that_it_was

North Dakota?s oil is more flammable than other crudes, feds warn

The oil that?s being fracked out of North Dakota and Montana may pose a ?significant fire risk,? federal regulators warned yesterday.This news comes after three trains carrying?crude oil from Bakken shale formation derailed and exploded last year. The most deadly derailment occurred last summer in?Lac-M?gantic, Quebec, killing 47 people. Then, in November, there was a?fiery crash of rail cars into an?Alabama wetlands area. And finally, this week ...

http://grist.org/climate-energy/north-dakotas-oil-is-more-flammable-th

Wyoming: 2013 saw more than 500 spills but not one fine

Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C. According to a new report from Wyoming Public Media, there were more than 500 spills in the oil and gas industry in 2013--in Wyoming alone. But the?Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission did not fine any of the responsible companies for spills. Not one.The spilled?materials included?oil, natural gas, wastewater or drilling mud--all of which can include toxic substances. What's ...

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/amall/wyoming_2013_saw_more_than_500

Acknowledging Influx Of Oil-By-Rail Shipments, Minnesota Braces For Disaster

W tanker train carrying crude oil burns after derailing in western Alabama outside Aliceville, Ala., early Friday.CREDIT: AP Photo/Alabama Emergency Management AgencyAt least one state has learned a lesson from the crude oil train derailment in North Dakota that caused massive explosions and forced 65 percent of the nearby town?s residents out of their homes.Minnesota officials on Thursday said that they are bracing for similar derailments in the ...

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/03/3115801/crude-rail-minneso

Judge Rules Exxon Must Face Criminal Charges Over 50,000 Gallon Fracking Waste Spill

Fracking opponents protest before the Tom Corbett inauguration to become the 46th governor of Pennsylvania at the state capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2011.CREDIT: AP Photo/Matt RourkeExxon Mobil Corp. subsidiary XTO Energy will have to face criminal charges for allegedly dumping tens of thousands of gallons of hydraulic fracturing waste at a Marcellus Shale drilling site in 2010, according to a Pennsylvania judge?s ruling on Thurs ...

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/03/3115991/exxon-criminal-cha

Amish Solution to Fracking Boom?Cash Out and Leave

... the Amish are cashing in on the boom brought about by hydraulic fracturing. But unlike the non-Amish accepting fracking royalties in exchange for .. ...

https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.allgov.com/news/where-is-the-m

The Last Mile: Are Solar-Powered Autonomous Cars Around the ...

In coming years, roads could be packed with fully electric cars, fully automated cars, even fully hydrogen-powered or road-trained cars. Or no cars ...

https://www.google.com/url?q=http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-futu