The EPA apparently caved to gas industry pressure by dropping a case involving a gas-tainted water well in Weatherford, Texas, according to an AP investigation published today.

The report stems from an EPA finding in 2010 that gas driller Range Resources

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Congress ended a year of wind industry angst this week by renewing for another year the production tax credit program that has helped sustain the growth of wind energy in the U.S..

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The Texas electric grid, known a ERCOT, set a new record for wind energy use in the state at 10:21 a.m. on Nov. 10, when wind power output provided nearly 26 percent of the “system load” at the the time.

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A carbon tax. The idea has been out there for decades now, proposed by environmentalists as a way for fossil fuel industries to pay for their pollution and reduce the carbon emissions forcing climate change.

Soon, however, the concept of the carbon tax could have some new adherents.

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A second major sampling of water near gas wells in Pavilion, Wyo., has found a range of gases and contaminants.

The testing of a monitoring well near where several residents say gas drilling has ruined their drinking water supplies found methane, ethane, diesel compounds and phenol, according to news reports.

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Anti-fracking forces in New York suffered a setback this week when a federal judge threw out their lawsuit asking for a full environmental review of possible damages from natural gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin, a prelude to a potential ban of drilling in the region.

The activists fear that natural gas “fracking” would jeopardize water supplies for the 15 million, including some residents of New York City, who depend on water originating in the Delaware River Basin. Fracking involves deep wells into shale deposits which are blasted open by injecting a water-chemical mix at high pressures. The fissures in the underground rock then release natural gas deposits.

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San Francisco residents may soon be able to buy a 100 percent green power plan, for about $9 a month more on average, under a public power program approved by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

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Clean energy advocates in Michigan today won the right to put a more ambitious renewable energy standard before the voters in November, a plan they hope will bring jobs as well as green energy to the state.

The proposal by Michigan Energy, Michigan Jobs would increase the state’s standard to 25 percent by 2025. If enacted, the new standard or RES, would require power providers to obtain 25 percent of their energy from renewable sources like wind, solar and geothermal power.

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Other than the 2012 Olympics, it’s been a discouraging hot, drought-y month this July. Greenland ice sheets are melting ominously. India plunged into darkness and panic amid two days of massive electrical outages. Cargill recalled about 15 tons of tainted hamburger in the Mid-Atlantic and the New England states. And there are disheartening reports about crop failures in the mighty U.S. “bread basket”.

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ITHACA, N.Y. – No matter how you drill it, using natural gas as an energy source is a smart move in the battle against global climate change and a good transition step on the road toward low-carbon energy from wind, solar and nuclear power.

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New research has concluded that salty, mineral-rich fluids deep beneath Pennsylvania’s natural gas fields are likely seeping upward thousands of feet into drinking water supplies.

Though the fluids were natural and not the byproduct of drilling or hydraulic fracturing, the finding further stokes the red-hot controversy over fracking in the Marcellus Shale, suggesting that drilling waste and chemicals could migrate in ways previously thought to be impossible.

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