Today's National Public Radio and New York Times coverage on the health risks of natural gas drilling

Today, National Public Radio's Morning Edition aired a story on the health impacts to Texans living near natural gas operations in the Barnett shale region. This powerful story focused on the impacts of compressor stations, including air contamination and low frequency noise. Compressor stations pressurize natural gas to help it flow through a pipeline. Residents near these stations report dizziness and black-outs, a father and infant with ruptured ear drums, and dying horses. These impacts could be mitigated with air pollution control equipment and noise protection, yet companies are not being required to protect the public.

The New York Times published an editorial on hydraulic fracturing, which discusses the link to water pollution and supports an EPA investigation and the FRAC Act--legislation to close the Halliburton loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act. The loophole exempts hydraulic fracturing from federal regulation and oversight.