By: RT.com, 11/30/2013

An environmental committee at Massachusetts Statehouse has approved a bill, imposing a 10-year ban on fracking for natural gas. The move comes as a wave of earthquakes in Texas has raised new concerns over the controversial drilling technique.

The Massachusetts fracking moratorium bill is designed to protect the state’s drinking water from possible contamination and thus "ensure that the health and prosperity of our communities is maintained," according to one of the legislation's sponsors, Northampton Democratic state Rep. Peter Kocot, cited by AP. To become law, the temporary ban on fracking has yet to be approved by the lawmakers and signed by the Democratic Governor, Deval Patrick. The Massachusetts legislative move was taken on Friday, the day after Texas was stuck by a 3.6 magnitude earthquake, one in a row of similar episodes during the last three weeks. The finger of blame is being pointed at fracking. The series of small earthquakes caused no casualties, but left local Texas residents fearing worse could be in store.

By: Jim Wickens, 11/27/2013

Photo: Jim Wickens / EFU

The unspoilt pastoral landscape of Transylvania is the latest battlefield in the war against aggressive fossil energy extraction. Jim Wickens reports on the farming communities fighting back against multinational energy companies.

In recent weeks the sleepy Saxon communities and protected forests of Sibiu county in Transylvania, have become an unlikely front for a new battleground, pitting gas exploration companies, the Romanian government and international investment firms, against a small band of environmental activists from across Romania, who are working side by side with local farmers to resist gas and oil exploration that they claim is taking place illegally on their land.

For more on this story visit www.theecologist.org

Waking Times, By: Sky Truth, 11/12/2013

Hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, and other drilling practices have unlocked previously inaccessible reserves of oil and gas across the United States and the world. However, some of the debate over fracking is distorting public understanding of these practices and interfering with good decision-making about this recent boom in unconventional oil and gas production. We often hear statements like this from industry and pro-drilling politicians: America has drilled and fracked more than 1 million wells over the past 60 years, and in all that time there has never been a proven case of groundwater contamination caused by fracking.

By: Charlie Cooper, 10/31/2013

Fracking involves drilling down into the earth and blasting water, sand and chemicals into shale rock to release the gas inside. The British Geological Survey estimates there could be 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas in the north of England and with pressure on the UK’s energy supply becoming ever greater, the Government is keen to begin capitalising on it.

However, the extraction technique, which is already used on a commercial scale in a number of countries including the USA, has raised a number of health and environmental concerns. Gas company Cuadrilla halted operations in 2011 after fracking was blamed for earth tremors in Blackpool, but a government review later concluded fracking was safe if properly monitored.

For more on this story visit http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/fracking-is-safe-says-governments-own-health-body-8916189.html