The Issue
Fracking
EWG’s investigations highlight the inherent risks of the current boom in drilling and hydraulic fracturing operations and empower citizens and lawmakers to work for better regulation.
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The Latest on Fracking
Earlier this month, a New York appellate court upheld a lower court ruling that cities and towns in New York state have the right to ban drilling and hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas. According to news accounts, more than 100 communities in the state have passed bans or moratoriums on the practice.
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WASHINGTON – Today Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Chris Gibson (R-N.Y.) reintroduced the bipartisan Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act of 2013 – a bill that Rep. DeGette first introduced in 2008.
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As drilling operations for natural gas and oil in the U.S. have expanded into shale and other unconventional underground formations, so has the list of public health threats associated with hydraulic fracturing, a drilling technology developed to extract these resources.
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New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is only the latest of a number of commentators who have been advancing the dubious argument that expanding use of natural gas is mitigating climate change.
Read MoreMarch is Women’s History Month, when the nation honors the many women who have had a lasting impact on American culture, history and women’s rights.
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Growing numbers of Americans have had to contend with the harmful environmental impacts of oil and natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing as energy companies have pushed into shale and other unconventional formations. Due to glaring loopholes and generous exemptions from federal law that Congress has granted to operators, there are few protective tools available to those whose water and air are threatened by the current drilling boom that features more intensive hydraulic fracturing – the controversial practice also known as fracking.
Read MoreAs drilling for natural gas pushes more and more into shale formations in populated areas, the problem of gas bubbling into drinking water is occurring with increasing frequency. Several homeowners have reported flaming tap water and have feared explosions. The danger is not just a theoretical one: a home in Bainbridge, Ohio, exploded in 2007 because the hydraulic fracturing and cementing of a nearby gas well was done improperly.
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In his State of the Union address, President Obama perpetuated a misleading idea -- that natural gas can reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that lead to global warming.
Read MoreMore than 80 organizations from 12 states and a New York state senator today called on the inspector general of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to investigate a decision to drop legal action against a drilling company despite evidence that it had polluted residents’ well water near Fort Worth, Texas.
Read MoreA report yesterday by the Associated Press that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency withdrew action against a natural gas company despite evidence that its drilling operations had contaminated drinking water in Texas raises alarming questions about the industry’s influence and the agency’s commitment to protecting public health and the environment.
Read MoreThe Environmental Working Group today submitted comments to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on its revised draft regulations for high-volume hydraulic fracturing. EWG warned New York officials that the revised rules contain too many flaws and scientific gaps to ensure that so-called “fracking” can be conducted safely.
Read MoreWASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans are not opposed to more domestic energy production, but they are unwilling to achieve it by sacrificing clean water, increased energy efficiency, and expanded wind and solar power in the process, according to a major new ORC International survey conducted for the nonprofit Civil Society Institute (CSI) and Environmental Working Group (EWG).
Read MoreThe film “Promised Land,” now showing in theaters across the country, plays off the intense national conversation about the relatively new natural gas drilling technology called high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing – better known by its nickname, fracking. The unknown consequences of this technology frame a drama about the moral dilemmas posed when people in small, economically depressed communities confront the promises and pitfalls of resource development.
Read MoreThe California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources has released a preliminary draft of regulations that for the first time would require oil and gas drilling companies in the state to report where they are using hydraulic fracturing technology and disclose what chemicals they are using.
Read MoreEWG is requesting records from New York officials to shed light on a potentially glaring loophole in the state's draft plan for regulating high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the event that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo decides to allow drillers to use the process to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale that underlies part of the state.
Read MoreThe Nation's cover story (Dec.17) examines the potential for the nation's drilling and fracking operations to contaminate our food.
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I almost spilled my coffee the day I clicked the link in my morning email to an article in the Norman, Okla. newspaper headlined, "Drilling rig to raise awareness of breast cancer."
Read MoreIn the wake of the 2012 election, Environmental Working Group has issued the following statements on three key issues central to EWG’s mission: Federal farm policy, natural gas extraction that protects people, water and land and fixing the nation’s failed federal chemicals law.
Read MoreEWG comments on EPA’s on draft guidance for oil and gas companies that use diesel in fracking fluids. The federal Safe Drinking Water Act requires them to obtain an EPA permit before injecting chemicals into the ground during drilling operations.
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