Pennsylvania Budget Suggests Lifting State Forest Fracking Moratorium

Pennsylvania’s governor suggests lifting the state’s ban on fracking in state forests. Though it could increase revenues for the state, opponents say the environmental costs are too high.

Frederick Reese
By Frederick Reese
In this July 27, 2011 file photo, the sun shines over a Range Resources well site in Washington, Pa. Germany and the state of Vermont recently banned fracking. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

In 2010, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources found that the state could not lease any more forest land without severely impairing the ecologically-fragile integrity of the ecosystem. The report indicated that expanded fracking of the region would violate the mission of the Forestry Bureau, which is “to ensure the

Read Full Article

America’s Energy Renaissance Requires Vision, Leadership

The country sits at the cusp of an energy revolution, but without a sound plan and leadership to carry it out, all this nation really has is a lot of gas.

Frederick Reese
By Frederick Reese

For the first time since the Nixon administration, America is poised to have an energy surplus. With the supply of natural gas spiking due to increased hydrofracking in the Marcellus Shale -- a concentrated tract of carbon-rich marine fossils and sedimentary rock stretching from New York State to Georgia --  Americans have seen savings in excess of

Read Full Article

Getting Physical Against Ohio Fracking

Letters and petitions weren’t working, so activists are turning to nonviolent obstruction.

Trisha Marczak
By Trisha Marczak

Anti-fracking advocates in Ohio are stepping up their game against the energy giants and politicians who residents claim have ignored their petitions, letters and protests. Member of Appalachia Resist have been using traditional methods of protest against the oil and gas industry for years. Yet, according to a group of members who gathered Nov. 2

Read Full Article

Doctor Loses Case Against Fracking Gag Order

The ruling keeps Alfonso Rodriguez from learning how fracking fluid makes his patients sick.

Trisha Marczak
By Trisha Marczak

A Pennsylvania doctor’s challenge to a medical “gag order” keeping secret the content of fracking fluid has been dismissed in U.S. District Court. The case stems from a 2012 law passed in Pennsylvania that allows doctors to access information related to “trade secret” chemicals used in the fracking process, so long as the information pertains to

Read Full Article

All Fracking Eyes On New York Court Of Appeals

The state’s highest court soon will rule whether local governments have the authority to ban fracking in their jurisdictions.

Trisha Marczak
By Trisha Marczak

The fate of fracking in New York State rests in a decision soon to be made by the state’s Court of Appeals -- one that will determine whether local governments have the authority to ban hydraulic fracturing within city and township limits. The decision will not only be paramount for New York, but for the entire country, as the state is unique

Read Full Article

Yet Another Study Confirms Fracking Wastewater Wells Cause Earthquakes

Residents of Youngstown, Ohio didn’t even know what an earthquake felt like before the fracking industry came to town.

Trisha Marczak
By Trisha Marczak

For the residents of Youngstown, Ohio, the recent onslaught of earthquakes came as a surprise. Before the fracking wastewater industry came to Ohio, Youngstown residents didn’t know what an earthquake felt like -- their community of 66,000 had never experienced anything like it. Yet by 2011, a year after the industry sprouted up in their

Read Full Article