"The Obama administration controls the tie-breaking vote on a plan to begin drilling for natural gas in the Northeast, shining a spotlight on its efforts to find a middle ground on the use of hydraulic fracturing to tap deep shale rock formations for energy.
Thirty years after companies stopped dumping dangerous wastes into the Mahoning River, near Youngstown, Ohio, it is still too polluted for fishing or recreation. Most of the companies are long since gone out of business, but nobody has taken action to clean the river up.
"A new lobbying group has formed in Albany, N.Y., to argue on behalf of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas at the state level, in what may signal the start of open support from labor unions for the controversial drilling practice."
"Long-awaited revisions to the Delaware River Basin Commission's proposed rules that would govern natural-gas development in the watershed were released Tuesday."
"Cold, tired and frustrated, residents of more than 1.6 million homes in the Northeast remained without power on Tuesday and some were told it could take 10 more days to restore electricity after the rare and deadly October snowstorm."
"NEWARK — The first steps in a Superfund cleanup of massive dioxin deposits in the Passaic River were unveiled by officials today."
"One of the darkest Halloweens ever loomed for about 3 million households left without power on Sunday by a rare October snowstorm in the Northeast that bedeviled transportation and killed at least eight people."
As part of its push to improve the nation's power system, the Obama administration is trying to expedite construction of 7 transmission lines, in various stages of planning and design, spanning 3,100 miles in 12 states.
"New York’s environmental study of the possible risks of high-volume hydraulic fracturing, a technique for natural gas drilling, addresses everything from the possible impact on job creation and the character of communities to damage to roads and wildlife. But a group of doctors, medical associations and environmental groups say there is one glaring omission: the possible effects on public health."
Sites in CA, GA, IL, IN, MS, NC, NJ, NM, NY, OR, SC, TN, and TX received a final designation of Superfund status, meaning they are among the most toxic in the country, due to contamination from industrial operations, mining, military activities, landfills, and other sources.
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