Earthworks
Oil &
Gas Accountability Project compared New York's inspection
and enforcement history for petroleum
wells to states where fracking is already in use — Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio, New Mexico
and Colorado.
Key state regulations include: Review
and approval of permits;
well design, location
and spacing; drilling operations; water management
and disposal; air emissions; wildlife impacts; surface disturbance; worker health
and safety;
and inspection
and enforcement of day - to - day
oil and gas operations.
But the
good news for tropical forests was tempered by developments including Indonesia announcing its intentions to open up more than 2 million hectares of carbon - dense peatlands to old palm development; the collapse in law
enforcement in Madagascar, contributing to an explosion of commercial timber (
and lemur) harvesting in that country's spectacular rainforest parks; a breakdown at the RSPO meeting over efforts to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions from palm
oil production; violent conflict in Peru between government security forces
and indigenous groups over land rights
and resource extraction; massive foreign land acquisitions in the Congo Basin; dodgy REDD dealings in Indonesia
and Papua New Guinea;
and large - scale expansion of
oil palm agriculture in the Amazon.