More than a dozen areas in the US have been affected in recent years by small earthquakes caused by oil and gas drilling, according to a government report released Thursday. “The man-made quakes jolted once-stable regions in eight states, including parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas, according to researchers at the US Geological Survey.

Experts said the spike in seismic activity was mainly caused by the oil and gas industry injecting wastewater deep underground, which can activate dormant faults.” [The Guardian]

New environmental rules and plummeting energy prices are increasing tensions between coal miners and natural-gas pumpers over which fuel will dominate U.S. power markets. “At the IHS CERAWeek global energy conference here, there were some heated words on both sides of the debate.

“Cleaner coal, there’s no such thing,” Eldar Saetre, chief executive of the Norwegian oil giant Statoil ASA, told an audience of hundreds of people, most of them employed in the fossil-fuel industry. He added climate-conscious electric companies should burn natural gas instead.” [WSJ]

Democrats from the Michigan state legislature introduced a bill on Thursday targeting to double the state’s efficiency and renewable energy standards by 2022. “The “Powering Michigan’s Future” bill package, announced by a bicameral group of Democratic lawmakers in Lansing, heads to committee in both Republican-controlled chambers where it faces an uncertain future.” [Midwest Energy News]