Every week, Kate Lanier assembles the most important global energy and climate news, including:

New England: Off the coast of New England, sea surface temperatures “are flashing red, showing an extreme warm anomaly.” That’s a direct, immediate link to the recent record snowfall in Boston. Expect more.

California: Stunning state-wide fracking waste water test results: “concentrations of the human carcinogen benzene … [at] levels thousands of times greater than state and federal agencies consider safe.” ‘Significant’ benzene levels were in 98% of the water samples. Not only that, but CA “inadvertently” allowed frackers to inject their “flowback water into protected aquifers containing drinking water.” LA Times says “halt new operations.”

Peru: Oil contamination by Argentina’s Pluspetrol in the Peruvian Amazon so upset indigenous people that they “stormed a military base being used by Pluspetrol as a storage area.” Pluspetrol is packing up and leaving Peru—and the government “is investigating the illegal use of firearms by police during the demonstrations.”