This is not an anti-Marcellus Shale drilling rant. I have to admit, the siren song of Marcellus Shale drilling is an alluring one. The prospect of cash money flowing into the state and the jobs drilling would create are compelling, to say the least. Even more exciting would be the city of Pittsburgh being a hub of the Marcellus Shale drilling industry. It’s enough to conjure images of the golden days of Pittsburgh, where the population was high, and the smoke pouring out of the stacks at the many local steel mills was shaped like dollar bill signs.
However, nothing is ever that simple. Much like how the former economic heart of this region also helped to cause environmental damage that lasts to this day; Marcellus Shale drilling is not without its negative side effects. My issue is not with the concept of drilling, but the question of whether it’s right for the city of Pittsburgh. A drilling company taking up residence here is one thing, drilling within the city limits is another one all together.
Like with drilling in general, drilling in the city is alluring, especially when topics like pension and legacy health care costs continue to rear their ugly heads and threaten to sink the city’s budget. Drilling seems to be the easy answer for a much needed cash infusion for the city.
However, before you start building a derrick in your back yard, here are a couple of things you might want to think about:
Fracking fluid: Not an expert, but if you don’t know what it is; here you go. Fracking fluid is mostly water, about 95%. The problem is the other 5%. The other 5% may contain a toxic or corrosive cocktail that helps to break up the shale and free the natural gas (By the way, drilling companies don’t want to tell anyone, and by law they don’t have to right now, what exactly is in their fracking fluid). Big deal right? Well, unfortunately it is a big deal. A well in Lawrence County recently had what’s called a blow out. Long story short, a blow out occurs when natural gas and fracking fluid violently gush back out of the drilling bore. About 35,000 gallons of Natural Gas and Fracking Fluid (which it was determined was a mixture of water, salt and chlorine. Gee, that sounds like it would be great to release in the city of Pittsburgh.) spilled onto the ground during drilling.
Isolated incident right? Not so much, Check out this and this.
In Colorado, where Marcellus Shale drilling is more established, over the last 2.5 years, over 5 MILLION gallons of “drilling liquid” was dumped during drilling. Not to say that a well in Pittsburgh would dump 5 million gallons, but, if one well can dump 35,000 gallons, and mishaps seem to be common place in a state with GREATER drilling regulation than Pennsylvania, then it seems a near certainty that it would happen in Pittsburgh.
A spill in the middle of nowhere is bad enough. Imagine a spill in a city with an approximate population density of 6000 people per square mile. In addition to local evacuations, The FAA instituted a flight ban on the Clearfield County spill on any flights below 1000 feet because even a small spark from an airplane engine could ignite a MASSIVE explosion. Don’t you think any of those 6000 nearby residents may have a lighter or a source of flame that could make a massive KABOOM before all proper evacuations would occur???!!! Bad juju all around.
Groundwater contamination: This point is up for debate, and obviously the different points of view are pretty polarized. Those for drilling say that there is no chance it could happen; those against drilling say that not only is it possible, but is already happening. Check out this Vanity Fair article.
If it’s true, that’s some scary shit! I’m not convinced either way, but the potential after effects are scary enough, that we better be goddamn sure! A drilling company telling me that it won’t contaminate isn’t gonna cut it. They have an agenda. We need independent verification that drilling won’t contaminate ground water. Again, with 6000 or so people a sq mile, we as a city can’t afford a single instance of ground water contamination.
Bottom line, I’m not convinced drilling is bad, but I sure as hell am not convinced that drilling is without damaging side effects. The city of Pittsburgh stands to lose too much if something goes wrong with drilling. We need to be sure that NO ONE will be adversely affected by drilling before we “drill baby drill.”
Showing posts with label Health Care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health Care. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
What is it You Were Looking For?
Everyone seems to be down on Obama these days. From the Gulf oil spill or “Obama’s Katrina” to the impending great Democrat vote out scheduled for this November, it’s become fashionable to be down on Barrack.
A commenter on the Radical Middle made a statement that as much as I hate to; I have to agree with. This commenter stated that Obama has “become too liberal for the moderates and too moderate for the liberals.” So true except for one little word: “become”. I think he has always been that way; but the American public has awoken. So far, with the exception of transportation and infrastructure, he has stayed pretty true to his word. He talked about beginning to focus on Afghanistan, and has done that by drawing down forces in Iraq and beginning to re-deploy those forces to Afghanistan. He talked about reversing “Don’t ask Don’t Tell” and is well on the way to doing that. Last but certainly not least, he talked about healthcare reform, and, well; we all know what happened in March.
All this was done while the economy was in the middle of taking a big stinky dump and a massive environmental disaster that will make the Exxon Valdez look about as bad as a turd floating in the kiddie pool.
So I think in-action is not the problem. He hasn’t exactly strayed from what he said he was going to and wanted to do. The problem is people didn’t want Obama, or any democratic President for that matter. They just didn’t want George Bush, and were too gun shy to vote for another Republican candidate. They voted for him because he wasn’t another G Dubs.
Here’s the problem: They didn’t pay attention to what he said, or what McCain said, or what Palin said (ok, no one did that because they were too busy laughing). Obama didn’t pull the wool over anyone’s eyes.
A friend of mine stated the other day “I voted for Obama, but I’ll tell you this; I did NOT vote for him to change healthcare”. Guess what, he didn’t hide the fact during his campaign!!!! Maybe you shouldn’t have called his bluff! Maybe you should have evaluated your decision a little better. If that was such a hot button issue for you, then perhaps you should have reconsidered.
My point to all this is; if you really supported a lot of the issues Obama addressed during his campaign (which I do for the record), then I don’t see a reason to be all that upset with him thus far. If you are one of the above people, then tough shit. He was pretty clear on what he wanted to do as President. If you don’t like the idea now, then you probably didn’t like it then. You just weren’t paying attention.
A commenter on the Radical Middle made a statement that as much as I hate to; I have to agree with. This commenter stated that Obama has “become too liberal for the moderates and too moderate for the liberals.” So true except for one little word: “become”. I think he has always been that way; but the American public has awoken. So far, with the exception of transportation and infrastructure, he has stayed pretty true to his word. He talked about beginning to focus on Afghanistan, and has done that by drawing down forces in Iraq and beginning to re-deploy those forces to Afghanistan. He talked about reversing “Don’t ask Don’t Tell” and is well on the way to doing that. Last but certainly not least, he talked about healthcare reform, and, well; we all know what happened in March.
All this was done while the economy was in the middle of taking a big stinky dump and a massive environmental disaster that will make the Exxon Valdez look about as bad as a turd floating in the kiddie pool.
So I think in-action is not the problem. He hasn’t exactly strayed from what he said he was going to and wanted to do. The problem is people didn’t want Obama, or any democratic President for that matter. They just didn’t want George Bush, and were too gun shy to vote for another Republican candidate. They voted for him because he wasn’t another G Dubs.
Here’s the problem: They didn’t pay attention to what he said, or what McCain said, or what Palin said (ok, no one did that because they were too busy laughing). Obama didn’t pull the wool over anyone’s eyes.
A friend of mine stated the other day “I voted for Obama, but I’ll tell you this; I did NOT vote for him to change healthcare”. Guess what, he didn’t hide the fact during his campaign!!!! Maybe you shouldn’t have called his bluff! Maybe you should have evaluated your decision a little better. If that was such a hot button issue for you, then perhaps you should have reconsidered.
My point to all this is; if you really supported a lot of the issues Obama addressed during his campaign (which I do for the record), then I don’t see a reason to be all that upset with him thus far. If you are one of the above people, then tough shit. He was pretty clear on what he wanted to do as President. If you don’t like the idea now, then you probably didn’t like it then. You just weren’t paying attention.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
HA HA!
Ok, so to recap (as if you won’t find out in a minute), #1: I vote democrat; #2 I support universal healthcare (also, yes I have a private insurer, yes I will be keeping that insurer, as we have not witnessed the end of private healthcare)
Now that that is out of the way, there have been some really sweet nuggets in the comment sections of a lot of papers and news outlets. I also added comments in bold
Hilarious really, here are a few of my favorites:
Did you know that when Patrick Henry made his famous “Give me Liberty or Give me Death” speech, he was actually referring to the eventual rise of a black president who would institute healthcare for all the citizen’s in the United States? Well if you didn’t, now you do, courtesy of “CLR” on CNN.com:
“Speaking of Irony (the day Obama signs the HC bill PH proclaimed):
March 23, 1775: Patrick Henry exclaims, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"” –Clearly “CLR” knows that it’s been empirically, and scientifically proven that universal healthcare is tantamount to slavery….oh wait, that’s really not the case at all…
Now that that is out of the way, there have been some really sweet nuggets in the comment sections of a lot of papers and news outlets. I also added comments in bold
Hilarious really, here are a few of my favorites:
Did you know that when Patrick Henry made his famous “Give me Liberty or Give me Death” speech, he was actually referring to the eventual rise of a black president who would institute healthcare for all the citizen’s in the United States? Well if you didn’t, now you do, courtesy of “CLR” on CNN.com:
“Speaking of Irony (the day Obama signs the HC bill PH proclaimed):
March 23, 1775: Patrick Henry exclaims, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"” –Clearly “CLR” knows that it’s been empirically, and scientifically proven that universal healthcare is tantamount to slavery….oh wait, that’s really not the case at all…
Again from the completely sane and rational empirically and scientifically proven department, we get a quote from “Henry Flynn”:
“Soon after he signs the bill, although the bill has some good things in it, it also is the first steps toward installing socialism in America-according to whom? Fox News I suppose. The signing of the bill is an act of treason-Missed the part in the Constitution where it says that when Obama signs this bill it should be considered treason.. Treason is an attempt to overthrow our government –just in case you didn’t know and yet the democrats allow such. He also went against his vows, when he took office, to uphold the constitution-Again, didn’t see the part of the Constitution where it forbade Obama to sign a universal healthcare plan. There are parts of this bill that are unconstitutional-where? In my opinion, he should be impeached and charged with treason-because Fox News says so! There will be no charges brought because our AG will not charge anyone with anything. He also dropped the charges against the Black Panthers for voter intimidation-huh? The president appointed people who would let him do whatever he wants, no matter how wrong it is! –Wow, that sounds a lot like a previous administration, or was that the other way around; he did whatever THEY wanted, no matter how wrong it was…At least the AG of the states all Republicans are taking their separate cases to court, the part that is unconstitutional!”
The next nugget comes from Tony, who must be in pretty good health:
“I make 120,000 a year and do not have insurance, by choice. I afford to pay full price at my doctors visits and pay full price for my prescription drugs. Does this mean, I have to now pay nearly 10,000 in healthcare or I will be fined? how does this make sense?” – Can’t wait until Tony has a major medical issue and then tries to pay the bills. This is selfish America in a nut shell, if this does not benefit me directly, I should not have to participate.
This one is PRICELESS, from "Comrade" Neal…
Welcome to the Divided Socialis(sic) States of America. Feels like the good old days of the Soviet Union. –Because you would know The Russians had Lenin, Stalin,nkhrushchev and Brezhnev.....we have Pelosi, Reid, Stupak, and Obama.-So ridiculous, needs no other response. Just warms your heart doesn't it? In a few years the U.S. will be just like the former USSR.......GONE!!!! God save our country from this abomination!!! -I’m sure you had alternative solutions to the problems the Democrats were/are attempting to address, you weren’t just a member of the massive chorus of “No’s” or a member of the collective temper tantrum whose members resorted to screaming insults like 5 year olds expecting that they would somehow get their way…
If anyone is bored at work, or in general, log onto any news website and you’ll find some real gems.
Oh yea, and our Attorney General has just joined the Republican cavalcade of State Attorney Generals who are filing lawsuits to stop this healthcare legislation. Hmmmm, sounds like a certain political party is real sore they didn’t stop the legislation.
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