May 18, 2012
Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.
Earlier this week, 55 major financial investors with nearly $1 trillion in assets under management announced that they have united to support “best practices” for fracking. These investors signed on to guidelines for reducing risk in oil and gas companies.
Where investors are considering new investments, the guidelines...
May 17, 2012
Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.
The New York Times published a very alarming story this week. Loopholes in highway safety rules allow truck drivers in the oil and gas industry to work longer hours than drivers in most other industries. According to the article, some drivers are pressured to drive...
May 16, 2012
Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.
- According to a recent article in Inside EPA (subscription only), the National Research Council (NRC) is preparing to undertake a preliminary review of the potential human and environmental risks of shale gas development, in particular hydraulic fracturing. The article quotes an NRC senior scholar as saying that a major comprehensive ...
May 15, 2012
Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.
A suite of bad bills is scheduled to be considered in the House Natural Resources Committee tomorrow, and NRDC opposes all of them. Here are the details from my colleague Bobby McEnaney on the four worst:
- H.R. 4383 – This draconian bill is designed to eliminate the public’s right to have a say in the management of public lands--lands that ...
May 14, 2012
Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.
Anyone who is following the current boom in domestic oil and gas production knows that the e-mails, articles, and reports never stop. I think the information flow will continue to grow as the industry continues to expand closer and closer to where people live. Here are some of the latest interesting things that have crossed my desk:
- A new article reports that since new pit rules were established...
May 10, 2012
Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released a draft rule that would govern hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") of federally managed oil and gas resources. There are many reasons why it is essential that the BLM issue strong, protective new rules for fracking. Among them is the fact that this rule, once finalized, will apply not only to federal public lands (like national forests and lands managed by...
May 9, 2012
Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.
Today NRDC's clean water experts released an important new report on fracking waste, which concludes that contaminated fracking wastewater is threatening people’s health and the environment, and none of the methods currently used to treat or dispose of that wastewater are safe enough. My colleague Rebecca Hammer has all the details in...
May 8, 2012
Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.
We've blogged before about concerns about the potential for mortgages, homeowners insurance, and title insurance being restricted in areas with current or even just planned oil or gas development. For anyone following this issue, a new report from WTAE in Pittsburgh...
May 4, 2012
Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.
Earlier today the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the Department of the Interior, issued a draft rule that would govern fracking under federal oil and gas leases. Many people have not heard of the BLM, but the agency manages 700 million acres of onshore subsurface mineral estate in...
May 3, 2012
Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.
I recently mentioned that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), part of the CDC, is conducting field work to assess health risks to oil and gas workers. It turns out that the NIOSH investigation has uncovered appalling health risks for workers involved in fracking operations being exposed to silica dust. The dust arises from the sand used as proppant in fracking. My NRDC colleague James...
