By Will Falk Featured image: Harmful algae blooms in Lake Erie in 2017. Public domain photo via NASA. On Tuesday, January 28, at 10 AM, a hearing will be held in the United States District Courthouse in Toledo, OH in the case Drewes Farms Partnership v. City of Toledo. At stake in this case is …
Continue reading Lake Erie Bill of Rights: Time for Direct Action → 
by Sean Butler and Will Falk / Featured image: an aerial photograph showing harmful algae blooms in Lake Erie in August of 2017. These are believed to be caused by the effluent runoff from factory farms in the watershed. Public domain photo by NOAA. Rights of nature advocates often repeat the words, “The structure of …
Continue reading Rights for Lake Erie? Why Corporate Rights and Preemption Must Go → 
By Will Falk and Sean Butler Photo: 2009 algae bloom in western Lake Erie. Photo by Tom Archer. It should be clear to anyone following the events surrounding attempts by the citizens of Toledo, OH, with help from nonprofit law firm the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), to protect Lake Erie with the Lake …
Continue reading Questioning Unquestioned Beliefs: What the Lake Erie Bill of Rights Teaches Us → 
By Reuters A major oil pipeline owned by Sunoco Logistics Partners LP leaked thousands of gallons of crude oil into a nature preserve in southwest Ohio late on Monday. Between 7,000 and 10,000 gallons (26,000-38,000 liters) of sweet crude leaked into the Oak Glen Nature Preserve about a quarter of a mile from the Great …
Continue reading Sunoco oil pipeline ruptures, spilling up to 10,000 gallons of crude into Ohio nature preserve →
By Abraham Lustgarten / ProPublica A new study has raised fresh concerns about the safety of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, concluding that fracking chemicals injected into the ground could migrate toward drinking water supplies far more quickly than experts have previously predicted. More than 5,000 wells were drilled in the Marcellus between mid-2009 …
Continue reading Study says fracking fluids could contaminate Marcellus aquifers within “just a few years” →
By Joe Romm / Think Progress A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) team has found that a sharp jump in earthquakes in America’s heartland appears to be linked to oil and natural gas drilling operations. As hydraulic fracturing has exploded onto the scene, it has increasingly been connected to earthquakes. Some quakes may be caused by …
Continue reading USGS report finds that wastewater injection is likely responsible for increased rate of earthquakes →
By Krishna Ramanujan A new report has found dozens of cases of illness, death and reproductive issues in cows, horses, goats, llamas, chickens, dogs, cats, fish and other wildlife, and humans. It says these conditions could be the result of exposure to gas drilling operations. Hydraulic fracturing, popularly called hydrofracking, is a process for extracting …
Continue reading Report finds that fracking fluids cause death and reproductive damage in animals →
By Environment News Service The Union of Concerned Scientists has documented 15 “near-misses” at 13 U.S. nuclear plants during 2011 and evaluates the response of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to each event in a report released today. The second in an annual series of reports, “The NRC and Nuclear Power Plant Safety 2011 Report: Living …
Continue reading Nuclear plants in United States experienced fifteen “near-misses” in 2011 →
By Josh Fox Gasland was intended to be both a chronicle of the way in which oil and gas companies have used vast sums of money to shield fracking from virtually all federal, state, and local regulations and a cautionary tale about the toll the process takes on people and the environment. Fortunately, the message …
Continue reading Anti-Fracking Campaigners: We Won’t Be Silenced →
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