Fracking And The Halliburton Loophole

More than four years after America's hydraulic fracturing boom kicked off, conflicts of interest between officials charged with regulating the controversial practice and the oil and gas industry remain widespread. Meanwhile, in-depth studies of fracking's effects on human health and the environment remain scant.

There's a bill in Congress called the "Protect IP Act". A more accurate name is the "Protect Media Corporation Profits Act".For domains registered in the USA, the police can already seize your domain without trial, via "asset forfeiture".The "Protect IP" act targets domains registered outside the USA. The US government can't seize the domain, because it's registered outside the USA. Instead, the bill forces DNS servers in the USA to not carry the domain. Google and other sites would be banned from mentioning it.

Mexico City plans to draw drinking water from a mile-deep aquifer, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. The Mexican effort challenges a key tenet of U.S.

GILLETTE, Wyo. — On a lonely stretch at the edge of the Great Plains, rolling grassland presses up against a crowning escarpment called the Pumpkin Buttes. The land appears bountiful, but it is stingy, straining to produce enough sustenance for the herds of cattle and sheep on its arid prairies.

As controversy over the use of hydraulic fracturing mounts across the U.S., the Natural Resources Defense Council has produced a handy fact sheet on best practices that can reduce risks of pollution from the technique.The four-page publication details the various risks to both surface and underground water from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which is used in oil and gas drilling operations and has become more widespread with the development of large new reserves found in shale rock formations.Fracking is used to stimulate oil and gas production…

By Ganaxi Small Cap Movers:The natural gas landscape has been fundamentally altered by the exploitation of shale gas using induced hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking.' Shale gas is natural gas formed from being trapped within shale formations, and 'fracking' is the technique used to release petroleum and natural gas by creating fractures from a wellbore drilled into reservoir rock formations.

U.S. oil production climbed to the highest level in 20 years as improved drilling techniques boosted exploration across the country and reinforced a shift toward energy independence. Output rose 0.6 percent to 7.04 million barrels a day in the week ended Jan. 11, the Energy Information Administration reported today, the highest level since January 1993. The nation met 83 percent of its energy needs in the first nine months of 2012, which would be the highest annual rate since 1991, according to EIA data.

Both sides are using movies to try to win the fracking debate, though actor Matt Damon says viewers should not assume the movie he stars in, Promised Land is “a rabid anti-fracking polemic.” Not so long ago, fracking was a technical term little known beyond the energy industry. Now it’s coming to Hollywood, as the fierce battle between environmentalists and oil firms is played out in several forthcoming films.