Our second member spotlight goes on independent producer and reporter Patricia Sagastume, whose blog covers South Florida issues. Her recent radio piece, which aired on the independent WLRN Miami Herald News, offers a unique perspective on the potential of wind farms to stimulate jobs and tourism in economically depressed communities. Have a listen!
"HOUSTON -- Aubrey K. McClendon built Chesapeake Energy into the nation’s second-largest producer of natural gas through a combination of debt, foresight, luck and sheer bravado. Now both he and the company have been forced to add humility to the mix."
"Some of the main proposals in a draft text for negotiation at a U.N. sustainable development conference next month are being watered down at informal talks in New York, observers said on Tuesday, heightening fears the summit will fail to deliver."
Early headlines in some "news" media about a study discussing the effect of wind turbines on local microclimates drastically misstated the findings and implications of the study, various debunkers point out.
"You wouldn't know it from campaign rhetoric, but gasoline prices have been trending down."
"They say oil and water don't mix, but when it comes to oil and gas drilling, water and oil are practically joined at the hip. It takes millions of gallons of water to drill a well. Water is the 'hydraulic' in the hydraulic fracturing process used to release oil and gas deposits. Disposing of wastewater is a costly challenge for drillers. And, at every step along the way, preventing groundwater contamination is the paramount concern for inspectors and regulators."
"The Sierra Club will try to use a 40-year-old legal settlement to scuttle plans by Dominion Resources Inc to convert a liquefied natural gas terminal in Maryland into a major export hub."
"Fifty-four percent oppose doing away with subsidies for oil, gas, coal, nuclear or renewable energy, while 47% favor the idea. Support for building more nuclear power plants has fallen dramatically."
"CANTON, Ohio — The Ohio steel industry, led by a drilling boom in the gas and oil industry and a resuscitated demand for cars and light trucks, is growing again. Steel makers across the state are racing to keep pace with plans to add a total of two million square feet of production space at a cost of $1.5 billion."
"GLASGOW, Mont. — Drug crimes in eastern Montana have more than doubled. Assaults in Dickinson, N.D., have increased fivefold in just two years. And the once-sleepy town of Plentywood, Mont., has seen three assaults with weapons in the past few months — a prospect previously unheard of in the tiny community tucked against the Canada border.
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