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Fracking

Red and white trucks flank a tall drilling well pictured against the sky

Trying to measure fracking’s toll on human health

Environment

The fracking boom has transformed large swaths of rural America, turning towns from idyllic to industrial and threatening the physical and mental health of many inhabitants.

City Council of Arlington, Texas

Racial justice movement spurs a Texas city council to bar fracking expansion

Environment
Kenton Ganster, left, stands with his mother, Kathleen, with a drilling rig used for fracking visible in the background off of the Rachel Carson Trail north of Pittsburgh.

Drilling rigs used in fracking found along nature trail irk some hikers

Environment
Oil wells dot the rural, agricultural landscape surrounding Williston, North Dakota. The Bakken formation has become one of the largest sources of new oil production in the US.

The ‘Wild West on steroids’ cools off

Economics
After an extremely warm first half of the year, global surface temperatures were heading for a third-straight record warm year in 2016. This NOAA map from December shows record warm temperatures (red) and record cold (blue) through the first 11 months of

2016 brought more record temperatures. So what climate course will the US and Trump set in 2017?

Environment
Ethane cracker Singapore

Making the plastics found everywhere in modern life comes with a cost: more pollution

Environment

Ethane is one of the most useful gases to the petrochemicals industry. But it needs some extra processing before it can become polyethylene, the chemical used in plastics manufacturing — and that processing can cause harmful pollution.

This is a view of vineyards on Seneca Lake in New York.

The war over wine, water and fuel in New York’s Finger Lakes

Economics

A plan to store natural gas and propane in caverns beneath Lake Seneca, in the heart of New York’s Finger Lakes wine region, has some local residents and wineries concerned.

Mick Luber, Ohio

Natural gas companies are using hardball tactics to expand their network of pipelines

Business

Eminent domain is the power granted to government to take private land for public use. But what if companies want to use eminent domain solely for profit and not the public good?

Gas compressor station

Compressor stations are a new flashpoint in the debate over natural gas extraction

Environment

Compressor stations that pressurize gas to keep it flowing through pipelines have proliferated across the country as the natural gas industry expands. But some residents who live near these compressor stations in Ohio complain of health problems that they link to the new facilities.

Gas compressor station

Compressor stations are a new flashpoint in the debate over natural gas extraction

Environment

Compressor stations that pressurize gas to keep it flowing through pipelines have proliferated across the country as the natural gas industry expands. But some residents who live near these compressor stations in Ohio complain of health problems that they link to the new facilities.