Dickenson Press: Study Shows Bakken Natural Gas Flare Satellite Images Aren't Accurate
Satellite images that circulated around the internet more than two years ago which purported to show natural-gas flares lighting up the Bakken Oil Patch as bright as a major metropolitan city were “highly processed,” “manipulated” and “inaccurate,” researchers at the University of North Dakota’s Energy & Environmental Research Center said earlier this month.
Chris Zygarlicke, the EERC’s deputy associate director for research, said he took an interest in the images because the science involved aligns closely with his background. He said having driven through western North Dakota and the Oil Patch, he believed the images were inaccurately portraying the area.
Inlander: Rocket Scientist Mark Russell Wants to Tap Geothermal Energy
Rocket scientist Mark Russell sees a future where humans harness the earth's energy to travel the cosmos. "Human beings will eventually be a space-faring people," says Russell. "The energy required to go out of our planet and elsewhere is substantial. We will not be using oil and gas for that."
To get there, Russell is drilling deeper than ever before in pursuit of fossil fuels. That's because his company, HyperSciences, is funded through Shell's GameChanger program. HyperSciences' product is a high-velocity projectile that Russell hopes will one day help access geothermal energy, a clean, renewable energy source that eventually could replace the oil and gas he's currently seeking.
Fortune: Why Cisco Is Buying Solar Energy
Tech giant Cisco Systems plans to buy energy from a solar farm that power company NRG Energy plans to build in California’s Sonoran Desert. The move is the latest by a tech company to invest in clean energy, as tech firms seek to green their image, compete to retain young eco-conscious employees and reduce the environmental impact of their energy use.
The solar panel farm will be built in Blythe, Calif., near the Arizona border, on 153 acres of land. When completed by the end of 2016, it will provide Cisco with 20 megawatts of solar energy, enough to power 14,000 average American homes.
Guardian: New Report Estimates Enough Natural Gas Is Leaking to Negate Climate Benefits
Natural gas has been touted as an environmentally friendly substitute for coal and oil production, but a new report estimates enough gas is leaking to negate most of the climate benefits of process.
The report, commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund and carried out by environmental consulting group ICF International, estimated the amount of leaks from natural gas and oil production on federal and tribal land in the U.S. It also looked at venting and flaring, processes in which drilling sites purposefully let gas go into the atmosphere for a variety of reasons -- usually for safety.
Rolling Stone: What's Killing the Babies of Vernal, Utah?
Donna Young, a fifty-something, heart-faced woman with a story-time lilt of a voice, cuts a curious figure for a pariah. She's the mother of six, a grandmother of 14 and an object of reverence among the women she's helped, many of whom she's guided through three and four home births with blissfully short labors and zero pain meds.
And the sin for which she's been punished with death threats and attacks on her reputation? Two years ago, she stumbled onto the truth that an alarming number of babies were dying in Vernal -- at least 10 in 2013 alone, what seemed to her a shockingly high infant mortality rate for such a small town. That summer, she raised her hand and put the obvious question to Joe Shaffer, director of the TriCounty Health Department: Why are so many of our babies dying?
In most places, detecting a grave risk to children would inspire people to name a street for you. But in Vernal, a town literally built by oil, raising questions about the safety of fracking will brand you a traitor and a target.