Washington, DC -- Today, Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of the Interior to review the 2017-2022 Outer Continental Oil and Gas leasing program. According to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, the process will take two years. Trump will also order a review of marine monuments and existing offshore drilling regulations including the blowout preventer rule, put into place after the Deepwater Horizon disaster to prevent similar tragedies from occurring.
TALLAHASSEE, FLA—A bill under consideration in the state Legislature would let Florida Power and Light and other utilities make customers pay for exploratory gas fracking in other states and also make customers give the utilities a guaranteed profit for that exploration.
A Senate panel on Tuesday approved SB 1238, which would undo a 2016 Supreme Court ruling that said companies are overstepping their authority in passing along these costs to ratepayers.
Columbus, OH -- Yesterday, it was revealed that Energy Transfer’s Rover pipeline has had two major spills of drilling fluids into Ohio’s wetlands in just the past week. Construction began on the project on in mid-March 2017. On April 14th, 50,000 gallons of drilling fluids were spilled into a wetland in Richland County, Mifflin Township.
Deadhorse, Alaska -- A British Petroleum (BP) oil and gas well on Alaska’s Northern Slope that blew out on Friday continues to spill crude oil and gas uncontrollably. No one was injured when the well blew out.
This disaster comes on the heels of two spills in Alaska’s Cook inlet and less than a week before the seven year anniversary of BP’s Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.
Columbus, OH -- Today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) notified Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) that it was conducting an investigation into the construction of the fracked gas Rover pipeline. The investigation comes as the Ohio EPA discovered the presence of petroleum hydrocarbon constituents, which are commonly found in diesel fluid, among the fluid ETP spilled near the Tuscarawas River during construction.
Washington, DC -- A new report released today by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) claims that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is not a significant source of dangerous chemicals in drinking water, despite a significant body of scientific evidence to the contrary.
ANCHORAGE – Interior Secretary Zinke today signed a Secretarial Order opening the Arctic to increased oil and gas production. The Order initiates a review of the sensitive coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas development and aims to increase drilling in the Western Arctic.
In response Lena Moffitt, director of the Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign issued the following statement.
Boston, MA - The Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) has written Governor Charlie Baker to ask him to drop his support for new natural gas pipelines until the state and federal agencies conduct comprehensive analyses to measure their effect on the climate and human health.
Hartford, CT--The Connecticut Siting Council voted today to approve a draft order denying the siting of a proposed 550 MW natural gas power plant in Killingly, Connecticut. The Council found that plant is not needed for energy reliability in Connecticut or the broader New England region.
Washington, DC -- Today, the U.S. Senate defeated a vote that would have paved the way for revoking the Bureau of Land Management’s methane waste prevention rule, a standard which would prevent the leaking and flaring of methane from oil and gas operations on public and tribal lands. Senator Michael Bennet voted against the bill while Senator Cory Gardner voted in favor of nullifying the rule.
Yesterday, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), in a letter to a federal regulator, announced its intention to “vacate and remand” their approval of the certification for the proposed fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Late yesterday, the Sierra Club filed objections to the United States Forest Service's proposal to facilitate the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) by weakening crucial provisions of the forest plan for the Monongahela and George Washington National Forests in West Virginia and Virginia.