April 2013 - Checks and Balances Project

Industry presentation on energy development misses a few facts

2013-04-26

Yesterday, we attended an industry webinar about the future of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) energy development on publicly owned lands – Master Leasing Plans (MLPs). The intent of MLPs is to reform BLM oil & gas leasing in order to ensure smart energy development by reducing red tape for industry and proactively protecting the… Read more »

2013-04-25

Gov. Hickenlooper likes to tout Colorado’s oil and gas rules as a national model, saying that the state has found the middle ground on development. Unfortunately, his administration’s Anadarko-Noble loophole is another example of Gov. Hickenlooper putting the profits of the oil and gas industry ahead of Coloradans. The good news is that champions for… Read more »

2013-04-25

A major player in New York’s fracking debate has been exposed as a member of one of the largest oil and gas lobby groups in New York. Ecology and Environment Inc. was hired as an “independent consultant” by the Cuomo Administration to assess the economic impacts of fracking in New York. On Earth Day 2013,… Read more »

2013-04-24

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Colorado State Director Helen Hankins has developed a pattern of offering controversial drilling plans, which when met with widespread public outcry are temporarily halted, only to be re-offered after the furor has died down. In 2011 Dir. Hankins proposed oil and gas leasing in Park County at South Park, home… Read more »

2013-04-16

The Congressional Western Caucus announced last week it will launch an online, Western Caucus University. The caucus claims the point of the new website is to educate the public on “what it means to live and work in the West.” Since the western caucus is comprised of oil- and gas-funded members of Congress who commonly… Read more »

2013-04-9

Today, the Colorado Bureau of Land Management State Director Helen Hankins’ office announced it will extend the life of about two dozen oil and gas leases acquired by SG Interests and Ursa Resources Group in Colorado’s Thompson Divide area. These leases were set to expire this year because leaseholders had failed to conduct any meaningful… Read more »

2013-04-9

Yesterday, Checks & Balances Project and 11 environmental, faith-based and public interest organizations called on Secretary of State John Kerry and the State Department Deputy Inspector General Harold Geisel to investigate whether Environmental Resources Management (ERM) hid conflicts of interest which might have excluded it from performing the Keystone XL environmental assessment and how State Department officials… Read more »

2013-04-8

The hits just keep coming against Estonian oil shale. A new story from Estonian Public Broadcasting sheds more light on the devastating environmental impact oil shale has on the small, European nation. “The oil shale industry, which produces the bulk of Estonia’s energy, is responsible for about 80 percent of the pollution and carbon emissions… Read more »

2013-04-5

The oil industry is once again trying to re-write history. Kathleen Sgamma, spokesperson for industry mouthpiece Western Energy Alliance, claimed in a news story that more lands were put under protection than drilled, during President George W. Bush’s Administration. A quick review of the amount of lands leased for drilling compared to the amount of… Read more »

2013-04-2

A new, compelling video from the Center for American Progress shows how drilling and fracking are encroaching on Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It’s an eye-opening look at how North Dakota’s industrial scale oil boom is wreaking havoc on the park and asks the question: How much are we willing to sacrifice? [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfOpPnfW0lo] Here in… Read more »

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