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.

Jimmy Wiggins of Acadian Builders works last week on a new home under construction as newly built homes can be seen in the background in Crystal Beach, as the Bolivar Peninsula is experiencing a comeback

houstonchronicle.com - by Harvey Rice - February 17, 2013

CRYSTAL BEACH - In a span of hours on Sept. 13, 2008, communities that had stood for almost 100 years on the Bolivar Peninsula were nearly wiped off the map by a furious storm named Ike.

Houses, buildings, the post office, the fire station - water and wind swept them away like pebbles pulled back to sea. The storm surge killed at least 15 people on the peninsula.

Here on Crystal Beach, almost five years later, long-time residents say Bolivar no longer resembles the home they remember from before Hurricane Ike, one of the costliest storms to ever hit the U.S.

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(ALSO READ SAME ARTICLE HERE)

REPORT - Fracking by the Numbers - Key Impacts of Dirty Drilling at the State and National Level (47 page .PDF report)

CLICK HERE - Fracking by the Numbers - Key Impacts of Dirty Drilling at the State and National Level

CLICK HERE - Fracking by the Numbers - New Report First to Quantify Damage Done by Gas Drilling

Growing concerns over radiation risks as report finds widespread environmental damage on an unimaginable scale in the US

theguardian.com - by Suzanne Goldenberg
October 4, 2013

Fracking in America generated 280bn US gallons of toxic waste water last year – enough to flood all of Washington DC beneath a 22ft deep toxic lagoon, a new report out on Thursday found.

Operational Biosurveillance - biosurveillance.typepad.com - October 1, 2013

Mexico is reporting upwards of 44 cases of cholera now with one fatality involving Hidalgo State and Mexico City.  The appearance of cholera in Mexico City is deeply concerning from the standpoint of the "tip of the iceberg": we only know of the recognized cases.  There are likely others out there.

A couple of points about this:

1. Totally expected to see expansion of the Nepalese cholera from Haiti to the DR, to Cuba, and now to Mexico. It is likely to include many other countries in that region before all is said and done.

2. It is likely to spread in Mexico in 'fits and starts' due to lack of indigenous immunity and will cause disruption.

3. It will likely spread along trade and migrant labor routes to the US and other countries doing business with Mexico.

4. Communities in the US may be caught unawareness due to basic expectation of border communities in Texas serving as "canaries in a coal mine" for the rest of the country. We propose the migrant labor routes penetrate deep into the US and far from these border communities.

A home destroyed during the landfall of Superstorm Sandy is pictured in Mantoloking, New Jersey March 22, 2013.  Credit: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

reuters.com - by Barbara Liston - September 24, 2013

(Reuters) - More than a million homeowners living in older houses along the coastlines and riverbanks of the United States are being jolted by federal flood insurance rate hikes under a law passed in the wake of devastating storms.

Carol Giovannoni, 51, of St. Pete Beach, a barrier island community off Florida's west coast, is one of the people dreading October 1, when the law takes effect. Giovannoni said the annual flood insurance premium on her standard 1950s concrete-block, ranch-style home on the waterfront will jump from $1,700 to $15,000 over the next few years.

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CLICK HERE - Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012

Firefighters and trucks gathered in a staging area recently in West before a procession to Waco's Ferrell Center for a memorial honoring victims of the deadly fertilizer explosion.  Michael Ainsworth/Staff Photographer

CLICK HERE - E-Plan - Delivering Vital Hazmat Information to First Responders

dallasnews.com - by Randy Lee Loftis - August 10, 2013

As federal agencies scramble to meet President Barack Obama’s Aug. 1 order to fix a broken chemical emergency system after the West Fertilizer Co. disaster, a small program with the potential to save the lives of firefighters and the public is struggling to survive.

For more than a decade, workers in a controlled-access office at the University of Texas at Dallas have run the nation’s farthest-reaching network offering first responders facility-specific information on chemical risks when they arrive at an industrial fire or leak.

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - July 19, 2013

A Sandia National Laboratories team is gearing up for hurricane season, readying analyses to help people in the eye of a storm. The team has two jobs: conducting annual “hurricane swath” analyses of probable impacts on the Gulf Coast and East Coast, and providing quick analyses of crisis response in the face of an imminent hurricane threat to the United States. A swath analysis looks at how a hurricane might interrupt critical services and at impacts to infrastructure specific to an area, such as petroleum and petrochemical industries in Houston or financial services in New York City. It also looks at such things as the economic impact of the storm or how it could upset food deliveries.