Energy & Fuel

"Winona will be the first U.S. city to monitor pollution from trucks hauling frac sand en route to fracking operations."

"GUN BARREL CITY — For nearly 83 years, Jim Howell was hardly one to cause a political ruckus. But this spring, he realized that a crude oil superhighway ran through his backyard — just two feet below his patchy lawn and seven feet beyond a newly built porch displaying a sign declaring 'cowpokes welcome.'"

"A World Bank-backed coal plant in South Africa is seeking to delay the implementation of pollution controls, a request that is raising new concerns about the bank's ability to enforce environmental standards on projects it supports."

"The second explosive oil-train derailment this year, which has finally burned out in rural Alabama, may raise new questions about the safety of the crude-by-rail boom, pointing to problems beyond those that surfaced following the earlier tragedy in Quebec."

"The North American energy industry's reputation for ironclad secrecy is starting to crack as producers discover a little transparency can help save millions of dollars."

"Dan Utech, a longtime Washington insider, has been named as President Barack Obama's new advisor on energy and climate change, a White House official said."

"World governments meeting in Poland from Monday are likely to make only modest progress in reaching a 2015 deal to fight climate change, with concern over economic growth at least partially eclipsing scientists' warnings of rising temperatures."

"The Tennessee Valley Authority has polluted groundwater supplies around all of its coal-fired power plants – including ones near Gallatin and Clarksville, a national environmental group concluded in a report released Thursday."

"Canada’s biggest energy companies including Suncor Energy Inc. and Imperial Oil Ltd. are trailing global peers in reporting environmental performance as scrutiny of the oil sands intensifies."

"The ongoing U.S. oil boom has flooded the Gulf Coast with domestic crude to levels not seen in decades, creating a homegrown oil glut in the nation's refining center just as the Obama administration prepares to rule on a pipeline that would add a torrent of heavy Canadian crude to the same region."