Pincushion America revisited: The legacy of fracking on our drinking water
The toxic legacy of fracking is now making itself visible in our drinking water. Expect many more stories of contamination in the coming years.
Fracking
Fighting Off a Petrochemical Future in the Ohio River Valley
Rather than pouring public money into projects that put Pennsylvanians’ health and the climate on the line—and that could be doomed to collapse anyway—activists say officials should invest in more sustainable industries.
Change BC Fracking or Expect Damaging Earthquakes: Report
A comprehensive new scientific study warns that stress changes caused by the technology could trigger a magnitude 5 earthquake or greater in the region.
What the Frack? Why Waste Political Capital on a Pyrrhic Victory?
These days American politics are a little like Russian nesting dolls—there are stories, within stories, within stories.
The Fracking Industry Is Hurting. Its Future Should Be an Election Issue
Fracking came on stream more than 15 years ago during a period of high oil prices and cheap credit. But the industry then tanked global prices for oil and methane with rampant overproduction in North America.
North Dakota blues: The legacy of fracking
All of the negative effects of the resource curse are now on display in North Dakota and may well get worse. Of course, what North Dakota is experiencing, many resource-rich places around the world are also experiencing in one form or another.
A Faltering Fracking Industry, on the Verge of a Bailout, Mixes Patriotism and Oil in the Permian
Long before the COVID-19 outbreak, fracking firms in the Permian Basin were experiencing a downturn. Now the dramatic devaluation of oil prices will likely bring the already declining drilling boom in the country’s shale regions to a near halt.
To Many’s Dismay, Permian Produces More Gas and Condensate Instead of Oil and Profits
As oil prices plummet, oil bankruptcies mount, and investors shun the shale industry, America’s top oil field — the Permian shale that straddles Texas and New Mexico — faces many new challenges that make profits appear more elusive than ever for the financially failing shale oil industry.
Many of those problems can be traced to two issues for the Permian Basin: The quality of its oil and the sheer volume of natural gas coming from its oil wells.
Report Attacks Industry Campaign to Fix Natural Gas’s Climate PR Problem
A new report from advocacy group Food and Water Watch argues that fracking and continued reliance on natural gas is detrimental to addressing climate change. The report, which calls out the fossil fuel industry’s misleading narratives around natural gas, comes at a time when progressive members of Congress like Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are introducing a bill to ban fracking and when the industry is ramping up its public relations push around gas.
Climate Watchdog Warns US Fracking Boom Leading to 30% Rise in Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2025
Planet-heating pollution from the U.S. oil, gas, and petrochemical industries could rise about 30% by 2025 compared with 2018 because of additional drilling and 157 new or expanded projects “fueled by the fracking boom,” an environmental watchdog group warned Wednesday.
Argentina Wants a Fracking Boom. The US Offers a Cautionary Tale
In Argentina, Vaca Muerta is treated as the country’s chance at salvation, with fracking seen as doing everything at once — creating jobs, reducing the debt burden, plugging the energy deficit and turning Argentina into a major player on the global oil and gas stage.
Does Trump Have a Bunch of ‘Losers’ to Thank for a Growing Economy?
But, curiously, this renaissance of petroleum in the United States has not led to a resurgence of profits in the oil and gas industry. Quite the opposite, because almost none of the companies that have invested in fracking are turning a profit. Investors in this industry are losing a lot of money, some $83 billion since 2008, according to oil analyst Arthur Berman.