Under restrictions, a Mumford, Tex., farm on the Brazos River could not draw water from it, while cities and power plants could. Credit Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times

nytimes.com - by Michael Wines - March 16, 2014

MUMFORD, Tex. — Across the parched American West, the long drought has set off a series of fierce legal and political battles over who controls an increasingly dear treasure — water.

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Manuel Sanchez takes in the view of his flooded home and property on September 14, 2013 in La Salle, Colorado. Photographer: Marc Piscotty/Getty Images

businessweek.com- by James Rowley - March 4, 2014

The U.S. House passed legislation trimming premiums for government-sponsored flood insurance

The measure would limit premium increases to 18 percent per policy or 15 percent of an average of premiums in a particular flood zone.

The House bill, H.R. 3370, must be reconciled with legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate that House Republican leaders said would roll back too many of the 2012 law’s changes. The Senate bill is S. 1926.

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epw.senate.gov

Senator Barbara Boxer
Keystone Pipeline and the Threat to Human Health
February 26, 2014
(As prepared for delivery)

We are here today to share dramatic new information that will shine a spotlight on the health impacts of tar sands oil - health impacts that are already being felt in communities exposed to one of the filthiest kinds of oil on our planet.

The Keystone XL pipeline will allow 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil every day to flow through our nation - an initial increase of 45 percent compared to what is being imported today - and this project could just be the beginning. In the long term, it is projected that Canada would produce almost 300 percent more tar sands oil by 2030.

Natural gas is flared at a Pioneer Natural Resources well, in Karnes County, Texas in 2010. 
Photographer: Eddie Seal/Bloomberg

bloomberg.com - by Lisa Song, Jim Morris and David Hasemyer - February 20, 2014

. . . For the past eight months, the Center for Public Integrity, InsideClimate News and The Weather Channel have examined what Texas, the nation's biggest oil producer, has done to protect people in the Eagle Ford from the industry's pollutants. What's happening in the Eagle Ford is important not only for Texas, but also for Pennsylvania, Colorado, North Dakota and other states where horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have made it profitable to extract oil and gas from deeply buried shale.

Our investigation and records obtained from Texas regulatory agencies reveal a system that does more to protect the industry than the public. . .

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Source: Ceres

From Texas to California, drilling for oil and gas is using billions of gallons of water in the country's most drought-prone areas

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH REPORT - Hydraulic Fracturing & Water Stress: Water Demand by the Numbers
(85 page .PDF report)

theguardian.com - by Suzanne Goldenberg - February 5, 2014

America's oil and gas rush is depleting water supplies in the driest and most drought-prone areas of the country, from Texas to California, new research has found.

At Houston Methodist Hospital, Celest Powell, 20, receives an IV saline solution that helps keep patients hydrated.

houstonchronicle.com - by Lora Hines - February 6, 2014

A severe flu season may have contributed to tightened supplies of intravenous saline solution, those ubiquitous bags that hospitals use by the thousands every day to keep patients hydrated and IVs flowing smoothly. . .

Late last year, three manufacturers of intravenous saline solutions, particularly sodium chloride, began alerting hospitals nationwide about shortages. At least one blamed the flu, which can leave patients dangerously dehydrated and in need of hospital care.

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Illustration by Victor Juhasz

While Obama talks of putting America on the path to a clean, green future, we're flooding world markets with cheap, high carbon fuels

rollingstone.com - by Tim Dickinson - February 3, 2014

. . . America's oil and coal corporations are racing to position the country as the planet's dirty-energy dealer – supplying the developing world with cut-rate, high-polluting, climate-damaging fuels. Much like tobacco companies did in the 1990s – when new taxes, regulations and rising consumer awareness undercut domestic demand – Big Carbon is turning to lucrative new markets in booming Asian economies where regulations are looser. Worse, the White House has quietly championed this dirty-energy trade.

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Azle Mayor Alan Brundrett has been disappointed by the Railroad Commission's refusal to provide answers or acknowledge that disposal wells have caused earthquakes elsewhere.

stateimpact.npr.org - by Terrence Henry - January 16, 2014

After dozens of quakes have rattled a small community outside of Fort Worth over the last few months, the Texas Legislature is creating a committee to look into the issue and allegations that the quakes are linked to oil and gas drilling activity.

State Representative Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, chairman of the House Energy Resources Committee, announced today the creation of a ‘Subcommittee on Seismic Activity.’ The subcommittee will be chaired by state Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Denton, and also include Representatives Phil King (R-Weatherford ), Terry Canales (D-Edinburg), and Chris Paddie (R-Marshall).

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insurancejournal.com - by Andrew G. Simpson - January 7, 2014

The U.S. Senate is expected to take a key vote soon on a bill that would delay some of the flood insurance rate hikes triggered by the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. . .

. . . The procedural vote on S.1846 was originally planned for Wednesday, but the Senate is still dealing with an extension of federal unemployment benefits, delaying consideration of the flood bill. U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), a major advocate for the bill, told USA Today that  “next week is more realistic” for any vote on the flood bill.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHkKa4Zj_94

Art Berman, Labyrinth Consulting Services, Houston, talks to HGS about his research into the economics of drilling and producing unconventional reservoirs in the United States. He discusses the Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Barnett and other shale gas plays. Berman presents graphs that show shale gas uneconomic to drill and produce at current gas prices. He says the public is mislead by energy company statements that gas reserves are large and that companies are making a profit from shale gas. The Houston Geological Society is not responsible for content or conclusions presented in this talk.

By: HGSGeoEducation

http://www.hgs.org/multimedia_Education

An inspector general's report says the EPA was justified in investigating claims of water contamination near a fracking site in Texas.

latimes.com - By Neela Banjeree - December 24, 2013

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency was justified in intervening to examine possible risks of gas drilling to Texas drinking water, the agency's internal watchdog reported Tuesday.

But environmentalists say the report raises fresh concerns about the EPA's 2012 decision to halt its investigation into possible well-water contamination in Parker County, Texas.

The EPA inspector general's report is the latest analysis to spotlight the regulator's handling of high-profile cases of alleged drinking-water contamination near natural gas drilling sites.

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khou.com - December 18, 2013

HOUSTON – At least one of the eight patients being treated for a mysterious illness at Conroe Regional Medical Center has tested positive for H1N1, according to Montgomery County health officials.

It's the same strain of H1N1 that caused a pandemic in 2009. Doctors have been seeing hundreds of new cases recently in Texas and nationwide.

kfdm.com

MONTGOMERY COUNTY - by Drew Karedes/KHOU 11 News and www.khou.com

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas -- Officials with the Montgomery County Health Department are on a mission to find out more about a mystery flu-like illness.

So far, half of the people who have come down with it have died.

According to the health department, all of the patients have had flu-like and/or pneumonia like symptoms.

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CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK

thinkprogress.org - By Katie Valentine - December 6, 2013

Researchers at Southern Methodist University have linked a string of 2009 and 2010 earthquakes in Texas to the injection of fracking wastewater into the ground, according to a new study.

The researchers examined the group of more than 50 earthquakes that hit the area of Cleburne, Texas in 2009 and 2010, and found that they could have happened because of wastewater injection wells associated with fracking operations. Before 2008, the Fort Worth Basin of Texas had never experienced an earthquake.

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STUDY - Analysis of the Cleburne, Texas, Earthquake Sequence from June 2009 to June 2010

A man walks through flooded streets in Hoboken, New Jersey, after Superstorm Sandy | Emile Wamsteker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

As subsidized rates of federal flood insurance rise, property owners along the coasts get angry. But we need insurance that reflects the risks of a changing planet

time.com - by Bryan Walsh - October 1, 2013

Thousands of homeowners in flood-prone parts of the country are going to be in for a rude awakening.  On Oct. 1, new changes to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which offers government-subsidized policies for households and businesses threatened by floods, mean that businesses in flood zones and homes that have been severely or repeatedly flooded will start going up 25% a year until rates reach levels that would reflect the actual risk from flooding. (Higher rates for second or vacation homes went into effect at the start of 2013.) That means that property owners in flood-prone areas who might have once been paying around $500 a year—rates that were well below what the market would charge, given the threat from flooding—will go up by thousands of dollars over the next decade.