hydraulic fracturing

First Energy Impacts Symposium starts Wednesday

The first-ever Energy Impacts Symposium is taking place this Wednesday and Thursday at Ohio State.

The event is an international research conference on the effects of new energy development — including both renewable and fossil fuels — on people, communities and economies.

Organizers are expecting about 140 energy-related social science experts from 25 U.S. states, Canada, five continents and 100 universities.

The experts will represent fields such as public health, public policy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science and community development. Continue reading First Energy Impacts Symposium starts Wednesday →

Oct. 27 workshop: Statewide impacts of shale development

An energy infrastructure workshop called Statewide Impacts of Shale and Alternative Energy Development, hosted by CFAES’s outreach arm, OSU Extension, is Tuesday, Oct. 27, on Ohio State’s Columbus campus. You’re invited to attend. Shale oil and gas development and its effects on landowners, communities and public officials (through land leasing, influxes of workers, building new pipelines and more) will be a main focus. Read more here and here. Register here (the cost is $30 and includes lunch).

How natural-gas pipelines affect crops and soils

A new pilot study is being planned to document the effects of natural-gas pipeline installation on crops and soils, and interested farmers are invited to participate. Steve Culman of CFAES’s outreach arm, OSU Extension, has details in Ohio’s Country Journal.

Ohio shale’s biggest environmental impact may be on forests

Growing forests 2Shale drilling’s biggest effect on Ohio’s environment might not come from the wells themselves but from the many new pipelines they need. So says CFAES watershed expert Joe Bonnell, who will speak twice on his research exploring the Ohio shale industry’s environmental impacts at Farm Science Review. The Review, which CFAES sponsors, is Sept. 22-24.

Report details chemicals at drilling site fire

Rick Reitzel of WCMH-TV, Columbus, interviewed Julie Weatherington-Rice, adjunct assistant professor in CFAES’s Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, for a story about last month’s fire, and the chemicals now being reported as being involved, at a hydraulic fracturing well site in southeast Ohio. Watch.