Environment

UPDATE: Over 500 Arrested At Keystone XL Pipeline Protest

UPDATE:

As of Aug. 30, at least 500 been arrested at the site of the Keystone XL Pipeline protest while government officials seem poised to approve the plan.

David L. Goldwyn, who worked with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs, told Platts Energy Week he believed Clinton will support the move.

'The Last Mountain' Documents The Fight To Save Appalachia From Coal

The Last Mountain”, a documentary about mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia, made its west coast premiere at the Landmark Theater in West Los Angeles, Calif. on June 15. After a viewing of the film, Bobby Kennedy Jr. made an appearance to briefly engage the crowd in a Q-and-A discussion.

EPA Announces Plan For Fracking Study

On Nov. 3, the Environmental Protection Agency announced its long-awaited plan to study the effects of hydraulic fracking on drinking water. 

Federal investigators will look to uncover any possible impact that fracking fluid -- which is made up of hundreds of toxic and nontoxic chemicals -- may have on water both above and below drilling sites. 

Online Chemical Registry Announced For Natural Gas Extraction

As activist groups across the country protest methods of natural gas extraction, an online registry of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing has been set for launch.

Announced on April 11, 2011, FracFocus.org will allow the public to look up chemicals used in the extraction of natural gas from local wells, reports ABC News.

North Sea Gas Platform Spilling Millions Of Cubic Feet Of Methane Per Day

Off the coast of Scotland, a gas platform operated by French energy company Total has been spilling millions of cubic feet of methane per day for over two weeks.

The Elgin platform, which is located in the North Sea, has been releasing about 7 million cu. ft. of methane gas every day since the leak's detection on Mar. 25 -- creating a disaster that has been likened to 2010's Deepwater Horizon disaster.

SoCal Gas Has Permanently Stopped Leak in Gas Well Above Porter Ranch, State Confirms

Nearly four months after it was first detected, leading thousands of Porter Ranch residents to flee their homes, a leak in a natural gas well more than 8,000 feet underground has been stopped, state authorities and the Southern California Gas Co. announced Thursday.

The well, sitting among more than 100 others in the utility’s massive Aliso Canyon storage field in the Santa Susana Mountains, has been the site of round-the-clock work to stop the leak since early December.

Chevron Criticised For Richmond Oil Refinery Fire Response

What started as a small leak at a Chevron oil refinery plant Monday night turned into a into nightmarish blaze, pouring black smoke into the air and sending hundreds to area hospitals with health complaints. 

The plant is in Richmond, Calif., situated just north of San Francisco, and has a daily production rate of about 150,000 barrels of gasoline. That amounts to 16 percent of what that region consumes every day.