The Issue
Oil & Gas Drilling
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.
Sign Up
The Latest on Oil & Gas Drilling
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 More
More 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 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 More
As New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo nears a decision on whether to lift the state’s moratorium on shale gas development, filings with the state ethics commission reveal that one of his top advisors may be in a position to benefit personally from the outcome.
Read MoreWashington, D.C. – A U.S. Geological Survey research team has linked oil and natural gas drilling operations to a series of recent earthquakes from Alabama to the Northern Rockies.
Read MoreDuring last night's State of the Union address, President Obama appeared ready to throw the full support of his administration behind the expansion of natural gas drilling operations throughout the country, largely ignoring the outrage and worry expressed by those in affected communities.
Read MoreHydraulic fracturing has been around for decades. But now, natural gas producers are deploying a new gas drilling method called high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing to release gas locked in untapped shale formations.
Read MoreDuring a public meeting of the Secretary of Energy’s advisory board on natural gas extraction and hydraulic fracturing, the Environmental Working Group called on the panel’s chairman to resign because of his financial ties to the oil and gas industry.
Read MoreThe Obama administration panel named May 5 to study hydraulic fracturing, a natural gas drilling technique that injects thousands of gallons of chemical-laced water into the ground, is dominated by oil and gas industry professionals.
Read MoreBy Dusty Horwitt, EWG Senior Counsel
Read More
Environmental Working Group's Senior Counsel Dusty Horwitt made his fourth appearance today (March 1, 2011) before the New York City Council's Committee on Environmental Protection to highlight the risks posed by the weakly regulated boom in natural gas drilling.
Read MoreThe Environmental Working Group (EWG) commends the important investigation of hydraulic fracturing released today (Jan. 31) by U.S. Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.). Their disturbing findings show that 1) oil and natural gas drilling companies injected more than 32 million gallons of diesel fuel or fluids containing diesel fuel in hydraulically fractured wells in 19 states between 2005 and 2009; and 2) no state and federal regulators have issued the required permits for this use of diesel fuel, an apparent violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Read MoreCompanies drilling for natural gas and oil are skirting federal law and injecting toxic petroleum distillates into thousands of wells, threatening drinking water supplies from New York to Wyoming. Federal and state regulators, meanwhile, largely look the other way. The findings are part of a new report by Environmental Working Group titled Drilling Around the Law. (http://www.ewg.org/drillingaroundthelaw)
Read More
Dusty Horwitt, EWG senior counsel, testifies on gas drilling and fracking before the New York City Council Committee on Environmental Protection Oct. 23, 2009.
Read MoreDusty Horwitt, EWG senior counsel, testifies before the New York City Council Committee on Environmental Protection about potential hazards of fracking in New York state.
Read MoreRemember the Chinese government's draconian crackdown on air pollution before the 2008 Olympics?
Read More
Oil and gas drillers in the American West are exempt from most environmental safeguards. You could imagine that companies engaging in hydraulic fracturing, the process by which highly toxic chemical are injected into the ground to force out natural gas, would be regulated by the Clean Water Act, at least, since ground water sources are sometimes near drilling sites.
Read MoreOil and natural gas companies have drilled almost 120,000 wells in the West since 2000, mostly for natural gas, and nearly 270,000 since 1980, according to industry records analyzed by Environmental Working Group. Yet drilling companies enjoy exemptions under most major federal environmental laws.
Read MoreOil and natural gas companies have drilled almost 120,000 wells in the West since 2000, mostly for natural gas, and nearly 270,000 since 1980, according to industry records analyzed by Environmental Working Group.
Read MoreAs the White House and some members of Congress call for more domestic oil and gas drilling, federal and industry data show that the Bush Administration has allowed more drilling on Western federal lands than any Administration in the last 25 year
Read MorePages
