• Senate immigration bill would reduce deficits by $200 billion over decade: CBO

    A long-awaited report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office offered a major victory for the bipartisan Gang of Eight senators and the draft immigration overhaul they drafted: the detailed report finds that the immigration bill now being debated in the Senate would reduce federal deficits by nearly $200 billion over the next decade even with higher spending on border security and government benefits. The report estimates that over the following decade — from 2024 to 2033 — the deficit reduction would be even greater, reaching an estimated $700 billion.

  • Shale oil and shale gas resources globally abundant: report

    Estimated shale oil and shale gas resources in the United States and in 137 shale formations in forty-one other countries represent 10 percent of the world’s crude oil and 32 percent of the world’s natural gas technically recoverable resources, or those that can be produced using current technology. A new report estimates technically recoverable 345 billion barrels of world shale oil and 7,299 trillion cubic feet of world shale gas.

  • Immigration bill includes benefits to some industries

    The immigration reform bill currently being debated on Capitol Hill, in addition to giving immigrants a pathway to citizenship, strengthening border security, and requiring better enforcement of laws which aim to prevent the hiring of undocumented workers, also includes benefits for specific industries and groups.

  • Newark to raise water rates to pay for infrastructure

    A report presented to Newark’s city council said that the town’s water and sewer rates will be increased by more than 60 percent over the next ten years in order to pay for $500 million in infrastructure repairs to the town’s faulty and outdated meters, century-old, leaky pipes, and broken valves.

  • Natural gas from fracking, coal have similar energy return on investment (EROI)

    The value of a fuel’s long-term usefulness and viability is judged through its energy return on investment, that is, the comparison between the eventual fuel and the energy invested to create it. A new study finds that shale gas has a return value which is close to coal.

  • Risk assessment of shale gas fracking to biodiversity

    Fracking, the controversial method of mining shale gas, is widespread across Pennsylvania, covering up to 280,000 km² of the Appalachian Basin. New research explores the risks posed to biodiversity including pollution from toxic chemicals, the building of well pads and pipelines, and changes to wetlands.

  • Texas to appeal FEMA decision not to declare West, Texas a disaster area

    The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said President Obama would not declare West, Texas a disaster area in the wake of the massive fertilizer plant explosion there two months ago, and Texas governor Rick Perry is not happy. FEMA said Texas did not make the case the state lacked funds for cleanup and recovery efforts.

  • New Jersey faces costly water infrastructure upgrades

    Before Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey, state officials knew they had much work ahead of them to update the state’s water infrastructure. The damage Sandy inflicted only highlighted the inadequacies of New Jersey’s outdated wastewater, stormwater, and drinking water infrastructure. Upgrading the system will be costly, but not doing so will be costlier.

  • Increased U.S. crude oil production leads to dramatic fall in oil imports

    The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued its Annual Energy Outlook 2013 (AEO2013), which shows that under the assumption of crude oil production  of about ten million bbl/d between 2020 and 2040 – which means total U.S. liquid fuels production (which includes crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGL), refinery gains, biofuels, and other liquid fuels) of more than eighteen million bbl/d in 2040 – net import of oil drops to 7 percent or less of total demand compared to 40 percent in 2012.

  • Defense companies turn their attention to border security

    The U.S. involvement in the Iraq war is over, and the country will soon withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. Federal budgets cuts shrink agencies’ ability to conduct research and development. Faced with these realities, military contractors have begun to focus on border security. What many defense companies find especially appealing is the fact that the Senate immigration bill conditions any move toward legalizing the status of more than eleven million illegal immigrants in the United States on the strengthening of security along the U.S.-Mexico border.

  • House panel to unveil cybersecurity bill

    Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee are close to finalizing a long-awaited cybersecurity bill, following extensive discussions with private companies.The bill formally establishes DHS’s already-operating National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, to circulate cyberthreat and vulnerability data.

  • ACLU files lawsuit challenging NSA's phone surveillance

    In the wake of the past week’s revelations about the NSA’s surveillance of phone calls, the yesterday American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit charging that the program violates Americans’ constitutional rights of free speech, association, and privacy.

  • Making jet fuel from switchgrass

    The Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is partnering with Cobalt Technologies, U.S. Navy, and Show Me Energy Cooperative to demonstrate that jet fuel can be made economically and in large quantities from a renewable biomass feedstock such as switch grass. The project could spur jobs in rural America, lead to less reliance of foreign oil.

  • California’s San Onofre nuclear power plant retired due to safety concerns

    Southern California Edison (SCE) has decided it will retire the San Onofre nuclear power plant located on the California coast. The decision comes after officials debated for over a year whether the twin reactors could be safely restarted. The power plant is located in a populated area, with millions living near it.

  • Insurers face minimum $4 billion payout from May U.S. storm damage

    Total economic losses from the Oklahoma tornado – in fact, the event comprised at least sixty-one confirmed tornado touchdowns — are preliminarily estimated at $5.0 billion, amid insured losses of at least $2.5 billion. Total economic losses from flash flooding in the Plains and Midwest, and from damaging winds in the Northeast, are expected to exceed $2.0 billion, with insured losses above $1.0 billion.