These are some of the stories we’ve been following this week.
- This three-dimensional map of the methane levels around Porter Ranch, California gives a new perspective on the extent of the leak.
- Class action lawsuits continue to be filed in the wake of the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan.
Artist’s rendering of a proposed California high-speed train, courtesy of California High-Speed Rail Authority.
- The California High-Speed Rail Authority has filed to use eminent domain to secure additional properties along the planned bullet train line. To date, 305 parcels and 1,160 acres have been slated for acquisition for the project by eminent domain since late 2013.
- A CSX railyard planned for a North Carolina town has residents upset over the use of eminent domain to make room for the project.
- New York City real estate broke a new record with an assessed value of more than $1 trillion.
- Abandoned properties in the Lower Hudson Valley of New York have caused $20 million in depreciation in surrounding homes. We’ve written about the problems caused by abandoned properties before.
- An industrial property in Massachusetts has lost $6 million in value, or about a third of its previous sale price, over the past 10 years.
- In considering potential new legislation, Colorado legislators will have to balance the rights of homeowners and their potential loss of property value versus the revenue that could be lost if fracking is banned in individual counties by local governments.
- Environmentalists are calling on lawmakers to deny proposed legislation that would prohibit local fracking bans. They claim that allowing fracking in the Florida Everglades could lead to an ecological disaster.
- Residents in Philadelphia who oppose fracking can get their natural gas from a renewable source, thanks to a local power company. Customers will be able to pay extra to use gas recovered from a landfill.
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