Seven Hospitalized After Fracking Pipelines Explode

The incidents occurred in a region that “is crisscrossed by oil and gas pipelines” and where fossil fuel production is “booming.”

Jessica Corbett
By Jessica Corbett
fracking pipelines explode

A series of natural gas pipeline explosions in Midland County, Texas on Wednesday hospitalized seven people with injuries and highlighted the risks of transporting fossil fuels. Dr. Sandra Steingraber, a New York-based scientist who advocates against hydraulic fracturing—a fossil fuel extraction method also called fracking—tweeted that her

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Mexican President-Elect Promises to Outlaw Fracking

Environmentalists are urging him to “move even farther by pledging to transition Mexico to a fully clean, renewable energy future.”

Jessica Corbett
By Jessica Corbett

Mexico's President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO, whose victory last month left many hopeful for the nation's next chapter, elicited praise from environmentalists for promising Wednesday to outlaw hydraulic fracturing, a controversial method of extracting natural gas that's often called fracking. "This is the climate leadership we

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Brazil Auctions Off Indigenous Lands, Public Utilities To Foreign Interests

Thursday’s auction was a juicy meal for the 32 corporate bidders, which included such major Western energy giants as Shell, ExxonMobil, and BP. Unprecedented in size and in the opposition it provoked, the auction fit neatly into Temer’s neoliberal agenda for Brazil.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb
Brazilian residents and Amazon indigenous leaders protest Brazil's president Michel Temer, outside New York's Palace Hotel while he dines with US president Donald Trump on September 18, 2017 in New York. Temer is mired in corruption scandals, and is under fire for measures that environmentalists say are an attack on the Amazon rainforest. (Bennett Raglin/AP for AVAAZ)

Indigenous and environmental activists scuffled with security guards after attempting to enter and interrupt an auction organized by the unelected President of Brazil, Michel Temer, last Thursday. Activists were particularly incensed that the auction was set to sell ancestral indigenous lands in the state of Minas Gerais to mining interests, as

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Fracking Giant Sues PA Resident For $5M For Speaking To Media About Contamination

“Take a skunk and every household chemical, put it in a blender, puree it for five minutes and take a whiff. It burns the back of your throat, makes you gag, makes you want to puke. It’s all still bad. That’s why [the inspectors are] back up here.” — Dimock, Pa. resident Ray Kemble.

MintPress News Desk
By MintPress News Desk
Fracking Giant Sues PA Resident for $5M For Speaking to Media About Contamination

Ever since the dangerous consequences of natural gas extraction via hydraulic fracturing – popularly known as “fracking” -- entered the national consciousness, the small town of Dimock, Pennsylvania has arguably been “ground zero” for water contamination caused by the controversial practice. Now Cabot Oil & Gas, the massive energy company

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As Fracking Firms Struggle To Stay Afloat, Big Banks Turn Their Backs

Fracking companies in Britain admit they are “suffering” and struggling to secure finance.

Richard Anderson
By Richard Anderson
Police prepare to remove a protestor from the top of a vehicle waiting to enter an exploratory drill site for the controversial gas extraction process known as fracking at Barton Moss in Manchester, England, Monday, Jan. 13, 2014. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

Fracking companies in Britain privately admit they are “suffering” and struggling to secure finance, according to government documents obtained via freedom of information. In a meeting last May with then-business minister Anna Soubry, the Onshore Energy Services Group (OESG) said raising the money needed to develop a wide-scale fracking

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PA Dept. of Environmental Protection Sues Towns Over Fracking Ban

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has taken legal action against two townships for their laws banning hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” within their communities, claiming that the local charters unlawfully interfere with state oil and gas policies.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb
A drilling rig is set up near a barn in Springville, Pa., to tap gas from the giant Marcellus Shale gas field. (AP/Alex Brandon)

ELK COUNTY, PA-- With nearly 8,000 active hydraulic fracturing wells, Pennsylvania is one of the most fracked states in the nation – owing to its position above the massive Marcellus gas shale. Years after the fracking boom began, Pennsylvania is now suffering from a slew of problems related to the well-drilling technique that has allowed oil and

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