Petrochemicals - US

A BP cleanup crew shovels oil from a beach on May 24, 2010 at Port Fourchon, Louisiana (Getty/AFP/File, John Moore)

nytimes.com - by Clifford Krauss - March 13, 2014

HOUSTON — Four years after the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, BP is being welcomed back to seek new oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico.

An agreement on Thursday with the Environmental Protection Agency lifts a 2012 ban that was imposed after the agency concluded that BP had not fully corrected problems that led to the well blowout in 2010 that killed 11 rig workers, spilled millions of gallons of oil and contaminated hundreds of miles of beaches. . .

. . . Under the agreement, BP will be allowed to bid for new leases as early as next Wednesday, but only as long as the company passes muster on ethics, corporate governance and safety procedures outlined by the agency.

dispatch.com - by Will Drabold - March 12, 2014

While geologists raised questions yesterday about whether a northeastern Ohio fracking operation caused a series of earthquakes in Mahoning County on Monday, state officials refused to provide any answers.

On Monday, Ohio Department of Natural Resources officials ordered Texas-based Hilcorp Energy to shut down an active well at the Carbon Limestone Landfill near Lowellville after four temblors were recorded in the area.

“It’s an area which (before 2011) had no history of earthquakes,” said John Armbruster, a retired Columbia University geology professor who had worked with Ohio officials to monitor a recent series of earthquakes tied to a fracking-waste injection well near Youngstown.

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The route of Enbridge’s Line 9, which would connect to a tar sands pipeline in Alberta on one side, and to Montreal on the other. The Montreal connection eventually goes to the eastern coast of Canada.  CREDIT: National Energy Board

thinkprogress.org - by Emily Atkin - March 7, 2014

While all eyes in America were turned to President Obama’s looming decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, Canadian regulators on Thursday approved their own, smaller version — a pipeline that would for the first time directly connect Alberta’s tar sands to Montreal.

Canada’s National Energy Board have approved a proposal by Enbridge Inc. to allow the reversal and expansion of their Line 9 pipeline. . .

. . . With the reversal and expansion approved, environmentalists say the controversial tar sands oil can now be pumped almost to the New England border.

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submitted by Margery Schab

capitalnewyork.com - by Scott Waldman - March 7, 2014

ALBANY—A consultant hired by the state Health Department to assist in a review of the health effects of fracking recently published a study that concluded “substantial concerns and major uncertainties” should be resolved before it is expanded nationally.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has indicated that his final, long-awaited decision on whether to permit fracking will depend on the department's findings. 

John Adgate, of the Colorado School of Public Health, surveyed a number of recent health-related studies of fracking and published his findings last month in the Environmental Science & Technology journal.

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CLICK HERE - STUDY - Potential Public Health Hazards, Exposures and Health Effects from Unconventional Natural Gas Development