Salon.com > anti-fracking

Obama’s top donors ask him to say no to Keystone XL

Fri, 10 May 2013 17:56:00 +0000

Environmental activists have been putting their bodies on the line for months -- both in the form of physical blockades in Texas and rallies in Washington -- to halt the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry crude oil from Alberta’s tar sands to the Gulf Coast. The TransCanada pipeline extension requires Obama's approval, and experts believe he will give it -- a State Department survey of the project (written by contractors with ties to the oil industry) has already given the pipeline the green light. On Friday, 150 of the president's most prominent donors, including Vinod Khosla, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems; Rob McKay, the heir to the Taco Bell fortune and chairman of the Democracy Alliance; Blythe Danner, the actor and mother of Gwyneth Paltrow; and Susie Tompkins Buell, co-founder of the Esprit clothing, wrote to the president urging he reject the pipeline.

How a big fracking setback got overlooked

Tue, 07 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

As an oft-rumored 2016 presidential candidate, a regular subject of obsequious profiles in the local and national press (including in this week's New Yorker), and the chief executive of one of the biggest fossil fuel states in America, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper's declarations about environmental issues carry weight. And so his stunning admission late last week is, indeed, big news in how it so definitively proves that political money buys hostility toward environmental science.

Illinois deal on fracking could be national model

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 21:25:00 +0000

CHICAGO (AP) — After years of clashing over the drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," the oil industry and environmentalists have achieved something extraordinary in Illinois: They sat down together to draft regulations both sides could live with.

If approved by lawmakers, the rules would be the nation's strictest. The Illinois model might also offer a template to other states seeking to carve out a middle ground between energy companies that would like free rein and environmental groups that want to ban the practice entirely.

Brian Petty is executive vice president of governmental and regulatory affairs at the International Association of Drilling Contractors. He says "anytime you can bring the lion and lamb to the table, it's a good thing."

Read our salon on fracking

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000

The growing tension between environmental concerns and business interests intensified this weekend amid reports that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was ready to approve a plan to allow hydraulic fracturing (aka "hydrofracking" or "fracking") in parts of his state, until a last-minute intervention from Robert Kennedy Jr. put the plan on delay as it undergoes further study. As politicians at all levels (including the president) will be deciding whether to embrace the controversial method of shale gas drilling in coming months, we asked two experts with divergent views to discuss the issue with us -- and you.

Anti-fracking groups target Andrew Cuomo in Iowa

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:40:00 +0000

A coalition of groups opposed to hydrofracking is running an ad in Iowa on Tuesday attacking New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his indecision about the state's drilling policy, throwing down the gauntlet should Cuomo decide to run for president.

More than 135 groups took out an ad in the Des Moines Register, telling Cuomo that "America is looking to you” and calling for "not one well" to be drilled. "Don't allow a single fracked shale gas well in New York," says the ad. "This is your chance to be a national leader on climate. Your choice now will be remembered forever."

Cuomo is considering lifting New York's moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, a process that involves drilling into shale rock and pumping it with chemicals until it splits open, so that natural gas can be extracted.

Cuomo joked in response to the ad, “I’m not going to read it because I’m not going to be in Des Moines," the New York Daily News reports.

Mark Ruffalo: Actors must be political

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:25:00 +0000

Mark Ruffalo, the standout in last year's biggest hit "The Avengers," has been dividing his time of late between acting and advocacy: He's worked with New Yorkers Against Fracking to raise awareness of the environmentally destructive drilling method.

On occasion of the release of "Promised Land," Matt Damon's anti-fracking drama (which opened softly at the box office and hasn't won over critics), Ruffalo called from the set of Bennett Miller's "Foxcatcher" to discuss the challenges of merging art and politics.

Have you seen "Promised Land"?