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hydraulic fracturing

GAO report: Energy-Water Nexus: Coordinated Federal Approach Needed to Better Manage Energy and Water Tradeoffs

The U.S. Government Accountability Office released on Sept. 13 a new report about the nexus between water and energy and warning that we’re running out of water because energy production is using too much of it, and leaving it unusable.

The office does not produce news releases about its reports, and so what follows are the findings as a way of summarizing the report, copied verbatim from its website.

Read the full report

E&E Publishing: Oil and gas frackers now have to tell EPA where they are doing it

In an Oct. 9 article, E&E Publishing reported that "Oil and gas companies will soon have to start telling U.S. EPA before they 'frack' wells, a development that has caught many in the industry off-guard and rekindled some drillers' most potent fears about federal intrusion."

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ProPublica says new study finds fluids from Marcellus Shale likely seeping into Pa. drinking water

by Abrahm Lustgarten ProPublica, July 9, 2012, 3 p.m.

New research has concluded that salty, mineral-rich fluids deep beneath Pennsylvania's natural gas fields are likely seeping upward thousands of feet into drinking water supplies.

Though the fluids were natural and not the byproduct of drilling or hydraulic fracturing, the finding further stokes the red-hot controversy over fracking in the Marcellus Shale, suggesting that drilling waste and chemicals could migrate in ways previously thought to be impossible.