"Last week the University of Texas provost announced he would re-examine a report by a UT professor that said fracking was safe for groundwater after the revelation that the professor pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Texas natural gas developer. It's the latest fusillade in the ongoing battle over the basic facts of fracking in America."
"TransCanada, the company seeking to build the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline from oil sands formations in Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries, received the final go-ahead from the federal government on Friday for the southern leg of the project."
"Shell is scaling back plans to drill up to five wells in Arctic waters this summer amid a series of setbacks, including stubborn sea ice still clinging to Alaska’s shores and delays in construction of an emergency oil spill containment barge."
"BILLINGS, Mont. -- Environmentalists filed notice Wednesday that they plan to sue the six companies that co-own eastern Montana's Colstrip power plant over alleged pollution violations."
"HARRISBURG, Pa. -- A Pennsylvania appellate court panel yesterday struck down provisions in a new law regulating the state's booming natural gas industry that opponents said would leave municipalities defenseless to protect homeowners, parks and schools from being surrounded by drilling sites or waste pits."
The University of Texas says it will commission and independent review of a fracking impact study.
"Cordial and generally noncommittal, Allison M. Macfarlane, the new chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, gave her first testimony before Congress on Tuesday without reiterating some of the positions she has taken in the past on nuclear waste."
"The Obama administration announced a plan on Tuesday to open public land in six southwestern states to speed up the development of solar energy, while blocking projects in areas deemed environmentally sensitive."
"OSAKA — The central government-sponsored public hearings on Japan's energy future moved to west Japan on Sunday, with the majority of designated speakers and attendees favoring either a complete withdrawal from nuclear power by 2030 or a near halving of the nation's reliance on it."
For years, controversy has been raging over what little 'science' there is on questions related to the environmental and health impacts of the hydraulic fracturing boom. The scientific controversies may be a proxy for the conflict over the gas-extraction method itself. Billions of dollars are at stake, the debate is getting ever more intense, and its intensity challenges the objectivity of scientists, government regulators, and journalists.
