Environment Are American Oil Platforms Prepared for Underwater Avalanches? Instead of one damaged wellhead, a mudslide would leave a tangled mess of pipes buried under a giant mass of sediments. Ian MacDonald
Environment Senate Republicans Court Lisa Murkowski With Budget Plan That Opens Alaska to Oil and Gas Drilling The appropriations bill asks the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for an extra billion dollars in new revenue, which could come from oil reserves beneath the refuge. Kate Wheeling
Environment Shell’s Big Back-Down The oil giant announced that there simply isn't enough oil and natural gas to warrant any more drilling. Madeleine Thomas
Environment Should Ocean Noise Be Recognized as a Pollutant? Marine ecosystems are just as vulnerable to seismic noise as other types of pollution. Madeleine Thomas
Environment Can We Handle an Arctic Oil Spill? Drilling in the Arctic has just begun, but when it comes to the science of safety, it turns out there are still a lot of unknowns. Madeleine Thomas
Environment It’s Time to Take Man-Made Earthquakes as Seriously as We Do Natural Ones That means monitoring historically inactive areas, such as north central Texas, the way we now monitor earthquake-happy California. Francie Diep
Environment The Government Is OK With a 75 Percent Chance of a Major Arctic Oil Spill. Are You? The Department of the Interior says there’s a 75 percent chance of a major oil spill in the Arctic—and it’s willing to take that chance. Brian Palmer