oil and gas industry

The Oklahoman – owned by an energy tycoon – is making the argument that people protest hydraulic fracturing because they're just plain ignorant of how absolutely wonderful the process is for everybody. If only they acknowledged reality.

Rail cars move more oil than pipelines like the proposed Keystone XL. And the cargo is much more concentrated. The combination spells (spills) disaster.

The media coverage of the 4.3-magnitude earthquake that shook central Oklahoma Tuesday was complacent and routine. That's probably just what the oil and gas industry wants. A glance at online reports about the quakes from The Oklahoman, News 9, KOCO/Channel 5 and NewsChannel 4 shows they didn't even mention how scientists claim the dramatic surge in earthquakes here are caused by the oil and gas drilling process known as fracking.

Alabama Power's parent company, Southern, will be relying less on coal and more on other resources, including renewables. The reason? Because it's simply cheaper. It hasn't stopped the demagogues from blaming Obama's fictional "War On Coal."

An Oklahoma state senator, along with a Tulsa geologist, have called for establishing a federal task force to study the dramatic increase of earthquakes here that scientists argue is related to oil and gas drilling processes.

Fracking is bad in a variety of ways, but nowhere is its impact more profound than on the drought-devastated state of California. The oil industry wastes water that the state desperately needs, and leaves behind pollution that infects anything remaining behind.

A new report from Environment Virginia details the ways electric vehicles are taking pollutants off the state's roads. And even when their electricity is derived from coal-fired plants, their efficiency is still a net positive, on both pocketbook and lungs.

Gov. Mary Fallin has signed into law a bill that ends pensions for new state employees under the Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System, moving new hires into 401(k)-styled plans that don't offer a guaranteed benefit. The only question now is what's next when it comes to cutting state pension plans in Oklahoma?

Argentina's government is welcoming frackers with open arms, much to the chagrin of its citizenry. Hyperinflation in the country has led its leaders to shortsightedly believe the filthy, experimental and dangerous extraction process is the remedy for Argentina's woes.

A midwife in Vernal, Utah – a small town of just less than 10,000 – delivered her first ever stillborn baby, after 19 years at the job. Turns out she wasn't the only one. In just three years, the town went from being average to six times that in infant mortality compared to the rest of the nation. Is it coincidence that big oil's fracking boom follows the same trajectory?