Water Theft a Growing Concern in Increasingly Dry Spain
Inside her greenhouse, Emilia Gomez bends down to see how her strawberries are faring following a difficult season with barely any water after her farm’s illegal well was shut down.
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drilling
Judge Warned That Gulf Oil Leases Ignore Spill Risks
Environmentalists on Wednesday updated their court battle to stop the sale of what they call “fatally flawed” oil and gas drilling leases at risk of causing a blowout or catastrophic oil spill.
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JPMorgan Will Stop Lending to Coal Companies
JPMorgan Chase & Co. will no longer do business with coal companies and will restrict financing to companies that drill in the Arctic, the company said Tuesday.
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Appeals Court Sets Aside California County’s Drilling-Permit Law
A California appeals court on Tuesday struck down a county ordinance that would have allowed the drilling of thousands of new oil wells.
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Appeals Court Upholds Norway Licenses for Arctic Drilling
An appeals court ruled Thursday that the Norwegian government can hand out oil drilling licenses in the Arctic, dealing a second blow to environmental groups that had sued against further drilling in the Barents Sea.
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California Sues Feds Over Plan to Open State to Fracking
In the latest clash over environmental policy between the Golden State and federal government, California sued the Trump administration Friday over its plan to open over a million acres of the state’s public lands to oil and gas drilling.
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Tiny Town on Oregon Coast Takes on Facebook
A battle playing out in a tiny Oregon town with no stoplights or cellphone service is pitting residents against one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
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Cyprus to Launch Hague Court Case Over Turkey’s Gas Drilling
The president of Cyprus says authorities are launching legal action at the International Court of Justice in the Hague against Turkey’s exploratory gas drilling inside Cypriot waters.
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Russians and Italians Accused of Dodging US Trade Sanctions
An indictment unsealed by a Georgia federal judge charges Russian and Italian nationals, a U.S. citizen and several companies in a conspiracy to circumvent American trade sanctions by disguising the destination of drilling equipment.
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Trump Seeks Expanded Drilling in Enormous Alaska Reserve
The Trump administration will consider a new management plan and expanded oil drilling for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, an Indiana-size area that former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called an “iconic place on our Earth.”
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Newsom Freezes New Fracking Permits in California
Citing the need for enhanced studies on the environmental impacts caused by two popular oil and gas drilling techniques, California officials announced Tuesday the state is suspending new permits for fracking and high-pressure steam operations.
Read moreFeds Ask Ninth Circuit to Approve Arctic Drilling Plan
A Justice Department attorney told a Ninth Circuit panel Tuesday that the government should be allowed to open warming Arctic waters to more drilling, claiming domestic oil and gas projects will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.
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House Passes Bill to Protect Land Around Grand Canyon From Mining
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed two bills to protect a combined 1.3 million acres of land in Arizona and New Mexico from new mining and drilling operations.
Read moreOil and Gas
The Center for Biological Diversity sued Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt in federal court, claiming he approved oil and gas drilling on more than 1 million acres in western Colorado, “without properly analyzing, studying alternatives to, and disclosing to the public significant quantities of greenhouse gas emissions and ensuing impacts to our climate, natural resources, and communities.”
Read moreSurvey Finds Oilfield Service Companies Struggling as Drilling Slows
Companies that supply equipment, materials and services to the oil and gas industry in Texas and nearby states had a rough third quarter as drilling activity continued to slow, according to an industry survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Read moreHouse Approves Ban on Oil Drilling in Arctic Refuge
Over protests from Republicans that repealing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would irreversibly damage U.S. energy independence, House Democrats passed a bill Thursday to protect the pristine coastal plains from oil and gas developers.
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Australian Oil Company Eyes Pristine Corner of West Texas
In the Permian Basin, the nation’s largest and most active oilfield surrounding the cities of Midland and Odessa in West Texas, pump jacks are as common as pickups and the industry’s presence is built into the fabric of daily life.
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Turkey: EU Sanctions Over Gas Drilling ‘Worthless’
Turkey on Tuesday rejected as “worthless” an initial set of sanctions approved by the European Union against Ankara, and vowed to send a new vessel to the eastern Mediterranean to reinforce its efforts to drill for hydrocarbons off the island of Cyprus.
Read moreSecurities Fraud
A Texas man defrauded investors of $6.1 million through his oil-drilling company, Texas E&P Partners, the SEC claims in a federal complaint.
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Greece Inks Undersea Gas Deals Despite Environmental Warning
Financially struggling Greece has signed contracts for offshore gas exploration in large tracts of the Mediterranean, despite warnings from leading environmental groups that the project threatens key marine life habitats.
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