Posts Tagged natural gas

New Rules Would Allow Fracking Within 1,000 Ft of NYC's Main Water Supply Tunnels

Jul 19

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“If the proposal goes through, Propublica reports that “the state would allow drilling near aqueducts but would require a site-specific environmental review for any application to drill within 1,000 feet of the water supply infrastructure.” In other words, all that would stand between legal drilling within hundreds of feet of crucial water supply tunnels would be a state environmental review.”

New Rules Would Allow Fracking Within 1,000 Ft of NYC’s Main Water Supply Tunnels via Brian Merchant – Treehugger

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Fracking forces recoil in New Jersey and France, and new rules in New York

Jul 6

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“Natural gas drilling techniques have either advanced or deteriorated, depending on your viewpoint, with the increased use of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking.

Fracking is being used to release gas from hard shale deposits in various hot spots across the U.S. and the world. It has allowed gas companies to access gas supplies that were not viable with traditional drilling methods, opening up a spigot that could supply the U.S. for years to come and launching a drumbeat for domestic natural gas to become the “bridge” fuel to the future, because it burns cleanly in combustion engines and because it has created thousands with much-needed jobs.

Critics, however, say fracking comes with a high environmental cost and even its promise of increased U.S. supplies could go unfulfilled if speculators sell the gas off on the global market. Gas companies, they say, are overly optimistic about natural gas production, withevidence emerging that fracked wells may run strongly for a few years, then diminish to a trickle, potentially hurting investors and landowner leasees.”

Fracking forces recoil in New Jersey and France, and new rules in New York via Barbara Kessler – Green Right Now

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Mark Ruffalo wants you to stand up against hydrofracking

Jun 9

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“Actor Mark Ruffalo, who lives in a rural New York town on the Delaware River with his family, is not one of those celebrities who parachutes into a random political cause and starts ignorantly pontificating about solutions. He has been actively involved with efforts to keep potentially disastrous hydrofracking practices out of New York State for three years, and he knows his stuff. He’s even co-founded his own initiative on water quality, Water Defense.

Now Ruffalo has banded together with some other famous friends, including Ethan Hawke and Zoe Saldana, to make a new video, “I Love My New York Water,” that he hopes will encourage people to get involved in the battle to keep New York’s water safe from the effects of hydrofracking. Fracking, in case you don’t know, is a controversial natural gas extraction process that has the potential to cause severe environmental damage (remember the flaming faucets in Gasland?). “It is a new technology, ” Ruffalo told me. “The industry is using us as guinea pigs. The more we learn about it, the uglier it looks.”

Mark Ruffalo wants you to stand up against hydrofracking via Sarah Goodyear – Grist

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NY assembly extends fracking ban for another year

Jun 8

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“The New York State Assembly on Monday passed a one-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, a method of natural gas drilling already under a temporary ban in the state due to concerns that it might pollute drinking water.

The moratorium on new drilling permits would run through June 1, 2012, replacing the current ban set to expire later this summer, when state environmental officials are expected to release a report on potential hazards of “hydrofracking.”

The measure must also pass the Republican-controlled state Senate to become law.”

NY assembly extends fracking ban for another year via Dan Weissner – Reuters

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Local Clean Energy Alliance Calls on PG&E to Halt Expansion of Natural Gas Infrastructure, Focus on Safety and Clean Energy Instead

Sep 17

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San Francisco — September 15, 2010 In the wake of the explosion of PG&E’s natural gas line in San Bruno, the Local Clean Energy Alliance is calling on PG&E to halt its expansion of natural gas infrastructure and focus on safety and clean energy instead. The Local Clean Energy Alliance is comprised of over 60 Bay Area community organizations and local businesses advocating for clean energy, healthy communities, and green jobs (www.localcleanenergy.org).

“PG&E should be prioritizing the safety of their customers. This means investing in the safety of their aging natural gas infrastructure over wasting ratepayer funds on unnecessary power plants and liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects,” noted Rory Cox, California Program Director for Pacific Environment.

Cox observed that there are currently several new gas fired power plants planned for the PG&E service territory, even though PG&E had 44 percent more generating capacity than needed on the hottest summer day of 2009. Residents near these proposed projects have expressed concern about additional air pollution. In addition, PG&E is planning to build a new 234-mile pipeline from Coos Bay Oregon to Northern California to bring in natural gas from foreign sources, via Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) technology. The Alliance deems these projects unnecessary and counter to the State’s climate action goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“This explosion is another wake up call that we need to transition away from the use of dangerous, polluting fossil fuels,” asserted Kirsten Schwind, Program Director at Bay Localize. “PG&E is not meeting its state mandated targets for saving energy and transitioning to renewable energy. Weather stripping, solar thermal hot water heaters, solar photovoltaics, and windmills don’t blow up.”

“The Bay Area can meet significantly more of its energy demand from safe, clean renewable energy right here in our communities,” noted Al Weinrub, a member of the Sierra Club’s State Energy-Climate Committee. “Investing in local renewable energy generation creates clean energy jobs in our cities while reducing the public health risks and climate impacts of fossil fuels.”

“Earlier this year PG&E spent $46 million on Proposition 16, which was ultimately rejected by CA voters. A utility which chooses to waste valuable dollars on political shenanigans over investments in public safety should raise serious questions for the CPUC and all PG&E customers,” observed Larry Chang, a green architect who serves on the steering committee of the Local Clean Energy Alliance.

The following steering committee members of the Local Clean Energy Alliance are available to comment on news and analysis stories following up on the San Bruno natural gas explosion:

Kirsten Schwind, Program Director, Bay Localize (former Chair of the City of Berkeley Energy Commission): 510-834-0420, kirsten@baylocalize.org – Karen will be presenting “Community Resilience” with Aaron Lehmer (also of Bay Localize) and Dan Homsey of the Neighborhood Empowerment Network at the Community Action (Better World) Pavilion at Green Festival San Francisco.

Rory Cox, California Program Director, Pacific Environment: 415-399-8850 x302, rcox@pacificenvironment.org

Al Weinrub, Member of Sierra Club California Energy-Climate Committee: (510) 531-0720, al.weinrub@comcast.net

Larry Chang, Green Architect: 510-534-1804, lc_arch@yahoo.com

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