News bites: Sanctions sap market for Libyan crude, EPA wants more data on ‘fracking’ wastewater, the uneven harms of climate change, and more

Oil is trading at its highest levels in two-and-a-half years.

Here’s an early morning snapshot of the volatile market, courtesy of Reuters:

“U.S. crude accelerated a drop towards $104 a barrel after the Kuwaiti oil minister said OPEC is in talks to increase production,” they report.

“OPEC is in consultations regarding a potential output rise, Kuwait’s Oil Minister said on Tuesday, but added that there was no decision for the group to produce over quotas yet.”

The New York Times has the latest on the controversy over wastewater from natural gas drilling sites in Pennsylvania that contain radioactive elements and other contaminants.

State regulators say tests months ago showed radioactivity levels at or below safe levels in rivers, but EPA wants more data, The Times reports.

“The [state] results come at a time of growing scrutiny of the potential hazards of radioactivity and other contaminants in wastewater from natural-gas drilling. The wastewater is routinely sent to treatment plants in Pennsylvania, which then discharge their waste into rivers,” their story states.

“In a letter sent to the state on Monday, the federal Environmental Protection Agency noted the state’s test results, but instructed officials there to perform testing within 30 days for radioactivity at drinking-water intake plants,” it adds, noting that EPA is also checking to see if current permits are strict enough.

USA Today reports that new research documents the uneven impact of climate change.

“Climate change will have the greatest impact on people least responsible for causing it, new research shows,” they report.

“In an eye-catching map, researchers at McGill University show the irony long suspected by scientists — that countries producing the least greenhouse gases per-capita are often the most vulnerable to climate change.”

Bloomberg looks at a new report that knocks the Energy Department’s paperwork on clean energy loan support.

“Clean-energy loan guarantees by the Energy Department haven’t met U.S. standards for record-keeping, an agency report said,” their piece states.

“The program of guarantees, which can cover as much as $71 billion in loans for renewable energy, transmission lines and other projects, hadn’t installed a tracking system in line with other federal financial programs, Gregory Friedman, the department’s inspector general, said in the report yesterday,” it adds.