Liz Truss rolled the dice on her premiership today unveiling a £150billion plan to freeze energy bills for two years and counter Vladimir Putin’s blackmail. Admitting her action is ‘extraordinary’, the PM told MPs the government is committed to keeping costs for households at £2,500 a year until October 2024 – less than half the level many feared they would hit. Including... 

Fracking should be banned as a “global threat” as it causes methane leaks contaminating water in the communities near gas wells, says an Australian MP who literally set a river ablaze to draw attention to the adverse effects of the practice. The companies that extract coal seam gas via fracking are duping people into believing that their technology is safe, while in reality it has contributed... 

Australia sought guidance from US environmental regulators about the impact of fracking on water supplies. The practice is currently banned in some Australian states, but the federal government wants a new set of guidelines regarding the process. The US’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provided the Australian Department of the Environment with details of a recent study it had carried out... 

A group of British lawmakers is demanding a ban on hydraulic fracturing or fracking for oil in the country despite government defiance. The MPs say fracking must end as it is “incompatible” with climate change targets and could increase the risk of environmental damage to public health. This is while a cross-party Environmental Audit Committee report has coincided with the revelation of a secret... 

In March 2014, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, caused 77 earthquakes in a small Ohio town that had no previous experience with seismic activity, according to a new study. One quake was large enough to be felt in neighboring areas. Fracking in Poland Township, Ohio was halted two days after the area was hit with a magnitude-3 earthquake along a hidden fault in rock which was deep beneath a natural... 

​Industry illegally injected about 3 billion gallons of fracking wastewater into central California drinking-water and farm-irrigation aquifers, the state found after the US Environmental Protection Agency ordered a review of possible contamination. According to documents obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity, the California State Water Resources Board found that at least nine of the 11... 

Those who live in close proximity to fracking sites exhibited a greater likelihood to suffer skin and respiratory problems than those who lived farther away from natural gas wells, according to a new study of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale region. The study, “Proximity to Natural Gas Wells and Reported Health Status: Results of a Household Survey in Washington County, Pennsylvania,” published... 

Greenpeace has denied a NATO claim that Russia is secretly working with EU environmental groups to oppose fracking. NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen has alleged Russia is trying to promote dependence on its gas exports through sabotage. Rasmussen told reporters Thursday that Russian intelligence agencies were secretly funding and collaborating with European environmental groups to prevent... 

Testing of methane concentration in water of Parker County, Texas indicates a link between the dangerously high levels of natural gas in local water supply and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operations in the gas-rich Barnett Shale, scientists say. Parker County resident Steve Lipsky has known for years his water has been contaminated with high levels of methane gas. Last year, he filed a complaint... 

The California Senate killed a bill that would enact a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state. The ban’s proponents blame lobbying by the oil industry, which spent nearly $1.5 million in three months fighting the bill. The proposed legislation, introduced by Democratic state Sens. Holly J. Mitchell and Mark Leno, would have prohibited all well stimulation treatments (which includes... 

After three years of legal wrangling, a Texas family has won its case against a company engaged in hydraulic fracturing near their home. The family, which suffered tangible health deterioration after the fracking began, was awarded $3 million. A Dallas jury ruled Tuesday in favor of the Parr family, which sued Aruba Petroleum in 2011 after each member of the family noticed a decline in health that,... 

The Los Angeles, California City Council has passed a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, making it the largest US city to prohibit the highly controversial oil and gas drilling procedure. In a 10 to 0 vote in favor of a moratorium on Friday, the Los Angeles City Council curbed “all activity associated with well stimulation, including, but not limited to, hydraulic fracturing, gravel packing, and... 

A video made by a man from North Dakota shows him cautiously holding a lighter up against the stream of water coming out of his tap, prompting large flames to rise up into the faucet. North Dakota has been home to a fracking boom over the past few years. “First time I did it, it was a huge fireball [that] took up the entire sink – so that’s why I’m a little jumpy doing it. I don’t... 

US energy giant Chevron has resumed its search for shale gas in north-eastern Romania after hundreds of riot police reportedly brutally removed a bunch of villagers who had been camping out at the site protesting the company’s plan. Back in October, Chevron suspended its plans to drill an exploration well for shale gas in the village of Pungesti – which is believed to be sitting on vast reserves...