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As the evidence mounts that fracking is causing chronic air pollution and health problems, American civil society organisations are pressuring the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take action.

Scientists at the University of California and NASA are convinced that the melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet has “passed the point of no return” and parts of it are rapidly melting.

Last week the Chief Executive of Occidental Petroleum, a mega-fracker, told analysts and investors if “towns don’t want us there, we won’t be there.” What he failed to mention is that they’ve got the Governor in their pockets doing the dirty work for them.

The British Government is set to unleash a fracking frenzy across large parts of the country as politicians try and replicate the American energy revolution.

As the Senate is poised to take what could be a decisive vote on whether to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport Canadian tar sands across the US, America’s own tar sands industry is quietly expanding.

Today could be the day when the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline could take a decisive turn. Later today the Senate is expected to debate what on the surface is a bipartisan energy efficiency bill, but pro-KXL Senators could try and push through a vote on the controversial pipeline as an amendment to the bill.

Senators cosponsoring the pro-Keystone XL bill introduced today have received roughly 5 times more in oil industry cash than those who remained off the bill.

The North American fracking industry is hailing the production of its billionth barrel of fracked oil from the vast Bakken oil fields as a cause for celebration.

The oil industry always maintains that politics is a job for somebody else – it just gets on with drilling for oil and gas. The line is a fallacy of course, as the industry uses its economic might to prop up politicians that give it favourable tax breaks or subsidies or push its climate destructive policies.