Reports of burning tap water and contaminated aquifers have followed the natural gas industry to the Pacific Northwest, where some drilling could involve the controversial practice of “hydraulic fracturing.”

For millions of years, vast deposits of natural gas have been trapped beneath much of the continental United States. Only in the past decade have energy companies possessed an extraction technique that allows them to free a good deal of the previously untapped reserves. This gas rush has sent federal, state and local lawmakers scrambling to reassess their drilling regulations.

Access the entire story with a map, photos, and audio/video files: Natural Gas Drillers Eye the Northwest

(By Bonnie Stewart and Aaron Kunz, Oregon Public Broadcasting EarthFix)

Bridge Energy is the first company to drill in Idaho during the current wave of gas exploration. It is concentrating its efforts in Payette County.

This is high desert land covered in corn, wheat and barley that rolls along as far as the eye can see. This is also where seven of Bridge Energy’s wells are ready to produce once a pipeline and processing facility come on line.

Access the entire story with a map, photos, and audio/video files: Idaho Gas Drilling: New Activity Raises Community Concerns

(By Aaron Kunz, Boise State Public Radio/Idaho Public Television)

(Link provided by Pat Rathmann)

Extracting natural gas from the Marcellus Shale could do more to aggravate global warming than mining coal, according to a Cornell study published in the May issue of Climatic Change Letters (105:5).

While natural gas has been touted as a clean-burning fuel that produces less carbon dioxide than coal, ecologist Robert Howarth warns that we should be more concerned about methane leaking into the atmosphere during hydraulic fracturing.

Read more: Natural Gas from Fracking Could Be ‘Dirtier’ than Coal, Cornell Professors Find

(By Stacey Shackford, Cornell Chronicle Online)