Denton County Courts Building courtesy of Mick Watson from Atascocita, Texas, CC BY 2.0.
These are some of the stories we’ve been following this week.
- The City Council of Denton, Texas voted to repeal its ban on hydraulic fracturing after the state legislature passed a bill prohibiting fracking bans by local governments. The repeal is seen as a strategic move to reduce court costs in ongoing litigation.
- It looks like the Federal Reserve is still planning to raise rates later this year, but will take it slow when raising the interest rates. The news follows a Federal Open Market Committee meeting earlier this week.
- Commercial real estate continues to do well, but investors can expect to see the market do some adjusting once the Federal Reserve raises interest rates.
- Amazon Web Services plans to operate exclusively on renewable energy in the future. The latest step in that direction is that Amazon has funded construction of an 80-megawatt solar farm in Virginia for its data centers.
- A new study from the University of Colorado reports that the more saltwater waste is pumped into injection wells and the faster it is done, the more earthquakes are triggered. It’s another study linking wastewater from fracking to earthquakes.
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released two new guidelines for assessing and mitigating vapor intrusion, the migration of hazardous vapors from contaminated soil or groundwater into overlying buildings and structures.
- Republicans are considering revising a recent coal ash disposal rule established by the EPA. We wrote about the EPA’s final rule in January.
- Predatory lending practices such as high-interest payday loans can be dangerous to families by causing them to default on more mainstream loans.
- Oman, known for its oil production, is looking to diversify its sovereign wealth fund with investments beyond oil, purchasing equity stakes in logistics, shipping, and tourism.
- Consumer prices rose again in May, partly due to the increasing price of gas.
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