Jim Morris, Lisa Song and David Hasemyer, Big Oil, Bad Air: Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas. The Center for Public Integrity, 18 February 2014. This story [was] jointly reported by the Center for Public Integrity, InsideClimate News and The Weather Channel. “[T]he Eagle Ford Shale play [is a] 400-mile-long 50-mile-wide bacchanal of oil and gas extraction [that] stretches from Leon County, Texas, in the northeast to the Mexican border in the southwest. Since 2008, more than 7,000 oil and gas wells have been sunk into the brittle, sedimentary rock. Another 5,500 have been approved by state regulators, making the Eagle Ford one of the most active drilling sites in America. Energy companies, cheered on by state officials, envision thousands more wells scattered across the plains. It is, an industry spokesman says, an ‘absolute game-changer’ for a long-depressed region of about 1.1 million people, some of whom suddenly find themselves with enough money to ensure their grandchildren’s future.”

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