These are some of the stories we’ve been following this week.
Southern California Gas Company’s Aliso Canyon facility, where Well SS25 has been leaking methane gas. Courtesy of Scott L, CC BY-SA 2.0.
- California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for the Porter Ranch neighborhood of Los Angeles after more than 10 weeks of methane gas leakage has forced thousands from their homes. The leak could take months to fix.
- Michigan Governor Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency in Flint and Genesee counties where high levels of lead were found in the water supply.
- According to the FHFA Home Price Index, the real estate market reached a new milestone in October 2015 with home prices now above last decade’s highest values.
- Illinois’s new reverse mortgage law went into effect at the start of the year. The law is aimed at educating potential borrowers and making sure they are protected from predatory lenders.
- Even though the Keystone XL Pipeline Project was rejected by President Obama, the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission reapproved the state permit for the Keystone XL pipeline to pass through the state.
- TransCanada sued the United States government over the rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline. The suit seeks $15 billion in damages and to reverse President Obama’s decision on the presidential permit for the project.
- An oil train derailed in the Mae Tha District of northern Thailand, spilling fuel and forcing the closure of the tracks while cleanup crews worked to repair and move the train cars.
- An Arizona Democrat introduced a bill in Congress that would work to prevent spills at abandoned mines similar to the Gold King Mine toxic spill into the Animas River last year.
- A new study by Yale University researchers found that many of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing have been linked to reproductive and developmental health problems.
- A series of earthquakes in Oklahoma this week is being blamed on wastewater injection related to fracking. These are just the latest earthquakes in the state many believe to be linked to the natural gas drilling process.
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