The drilling method is enabling a U.S. oil and gas production boom but bringing fears of water and air pollution.

The hacker activist group Anonymous said it plans to target the oil-and-gas sector in a June 20 operation.

“It has been a long time coming,” the collective said of the event, Operation Petrol, in a video it released this week on its YouTube page.

The group said it would hone in on the United States, Canada, England, Israel, China, Italy, France, Germany, Russia and the governments of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.

The Senate voted 97-0 to approve President Obama’s nomination of Ernest Moniz to head the Department of Energy.

Republicans have threatened to block her nomination, raising questions about transparency at the EPA.

The EPA's acting head has asked for a review of claims the EPA refuses to waive fees for conservative groups.

Republicans have said they will attend Thursday's vote on Gina McCarthy after boycotting it last week.

A big new survey of thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers finds a 97 percent consensus that humans are causing global warming.

Reuters has more on the findings here.

In other news ...

ON TAP THURSDAY: Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Democrats will try again to advance the stalled nomination of Gina McCarthy, President Obama’s choice to run the Environmental Protection Agency.

Last week Republicans scuttled a vote by refusing to attend, but Democrats plan to have enough of their own members present Thursday to ensure a quorum. 

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), the committee's top Republican, confirmed through committee Republican spokesman Luke Bolar late Wednesday that some Republicans will attend the vote. Bolar said EPA committed to following up on some GOP questions regarding transparency, but that the agency's follow through remains important going forward.

Bloomberg BNA reported that Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and John Boozman (R-Ark.) both said they plan to attend.

Still, Republicans have some outstanding concerns and want to extract more information from EPA.

“We have a lot of pending requests at EPA that haven’t been answered,” Sen. Jeff Session (R-Ala.) told reporters. “That is a very serious problem. This position is highly significant. It is just amazing, the power of the EPA.”

Republicans have turned the McCarthy nomination into a referendum over what they call inadequate "transparency" at the agency.

But the president’s allies are also seeking to land political blows in the battle over McCarthy, who is currently the EPA's top air quality regulator.

The nonprofit group created out of President Obama's reelection campaign is targeting Senate Republicans over their opposition to his nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Organizing for Action (OFA) on Wednesday pressed supporters to call out Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee a day ahead of the panel's second attempt to confirm Gina McCarthy, Obama's nominee to be EPA administrator.

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