"It's the climate stupid" Redux

Nill McKibben rhetorically asks, "Will global warming be a 2012 election issue?"  Now McKibben is the person you expect to push this narrative, but it does hint that there is a growing unease about the climate due to the rise in extreme weather that would affect politics.
Hey, I called it.

Police clear Bonus Marcher's..er Occupy Camps

Over the weekend Portland, Oregon (there's two Portlands you know), Salt Lake City, Oakland and Denver cleared out the Occupy camps in those cities. Last night New York did the same, but there is a court order overturning NYC's action. No tanks, bayonets or calvary were used.

Which brings up the most obvious analogy to the Occupy events, the Depression era Bonus Marchers. 

"Bonus Army marchers (left) confront the police." Wikicommons.

There was one good article I came across in October linking the two, as well other similar movements during economic stress in the U.S. such as Coxey's Army.  Why don't we hear this analogy more often in the MSM, instead of very weak comparisons to the Sixties' anti-war protests?  Sadly I would have to attribute it once again to the severe cultural myopia of the Baby Boomers, as the error is made by those on both the left and right.  The danger from this narrow viewing of history is that it shoehorns everything into the conflicts and issues of a narrow slice of time that are not appropriate to today's program.  It is similar to when those who should know better frame every period of international tension with a grossly simplified version of the '38 Munich Appeasement.

Marcellus News for Pennsylvania: Nov. 14

New Drilling Fee Proposal Moves Out Of Senate Appropriations Committee

The Senate Appropriations Committee this evening approved, largely along party lines, an amendment offered by Sen. Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson) to Senate Bill 1100 proposing a uniform, statewide Marcellus Shale drilling fee starting at $50,000 per well, per year decreasing to $10,000 after 10 years. Senate Democrats offered their own proposal starting at $75,000 per well, which was defeated.

Shale Boom Hits Williamsport: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

But around Williamsport, gas companies have leased thousands of acres of property from landowners, forests and state parks over the past five years to get at it.
Now because of it, Williamsport calls itself the energy capital of Pennsylvania. This year, it was named the seventh fastest growing small city in the country. There are 553 active drilling sites just in Lycoming County, where Williamsport is located, and 1,562 next door in Bradford County.
Those who live there say Marcellus shale has changed everything.

Fracking critics urge officials to block Delaware Basin gas development

Opponents of a controversial method of natural gas extraction will stage a last-ditch effort on Monday, November 14 to stop an interstate regulator from giving the go-ahead for gas production in the Delaware River Basin.

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), consisting of the governors of Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, plus Army Corps of Engineers which represents the federal government, is due to vote on Nov. 21 on proposed rules that would allow tens of thousands of gas wells to be drilled in the basin. Approval would lift a moratorium.

Lack of posts

Despite all the goin'-ons with OWS, fracking and Penn State (which does relate to overall issues with double standards, misplace priorities and abuse of pwer) I haven't written a thing here. Unfortunately I have had a lot of grading for my one class coupled with the need to get exterior work on the old school house done while the weather is good.

I hope to get back up to speed soon.

More crazy weather

Well despite the record-breaking October Northeast snow, the month overall was warmer than average in the U. S. 

But in terms of ongoing crazy we have Oklahoma tornadoes being followed by snow in the Plains region. 

And for real crazy we have an unusually powerful Bering Sea storm packing 85 mph winds about to slam into western Alaska, possibly producing 4 to 10 foot storm surges.

Joe Paterno Must Go - Now!

In the wake of the revelations that a serial pedophile was employed as an assistant coach by Penn. State football and protected by higher ups in the university, newspapers in Pennsylvania are calling for the resignations of Penn. State's president and Joe Paterno.  A former quarterback and grad assistant witnessed the rape of a 10-year old in a PSU locker room shower, then went to his dad, who told him to talk to Paterno, who in turn did little but inform higher-ups. The GA didn't intervene or call the police and Joe Pa did little more. Yet, paterno is still defended  by PSU football fans and alumni.

Sexual assault on a child is a felony and a citizen is required to report it to the law enforcement authorities. Not just pass it upstairs, as if there is really anyone with authority over JoePa. Sorry Mike and Mike in the Morning, he did not do enough. This is the type of actions that got the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in trouble.  This case is no different, the same legal principles apply.

Whether it's Penn State, the Catholic Church, the National Restaurant Association or Occupy Wall Street, sexual assault is a crime that you are required to report, not police yourself to protect your organizations reputation - period.

Marcellus News for Pennsylvania: Nov. 7

Corporate funding of Marcellus Shale studies at universities raises alarms

As development of the Marcellus Shale spreads across Pennsylvania, Penn State University has taken a central role in doing research about the industry, from its economic impact to its geological properties.

Some of the research is paid for by companies extracting the gas, according to petroleum geologists who do the work. But the state-related university, which took in $214 million in taxpayer funding last year, declined to say how much individual companies spend or what the money pays for.

Marcellus News for Pennsylvania: Nov. 3

Midnight Pennsylvania Explosion Fuels New Marcellus Gas Safety Concerns

A natural gas compressor station in southern Pennsylvania exploded overnight Thursday, prompting the evacuation of about 150 people and raising concerns about safety amid the shale-gas boom that is spreading throughout the state.

A local resident reported a "loud noise" at the Artemas Compressor Station in Mann Township, Bedford County, at about 12:30 a.m., according to Shawn Trahan, a spokeswoman for Houston-based Columbia Gas Transmission, part of NiSource, which operates the station.

Pa. House panel OKs shale fee bill on party lines

Pennsylvania House Republicans on Wednesday passed a measure out of committee that would impose a local impact fee on natural gas drilling and establish new state regulations on the growing industry.

The 127-page bill, approved 15-9 in the Finance Committee along party lines, was patterned closely on an approach favored by Republican Gov. Tom Corbett. It also would fund environmental programs.

Federal probe into hydraulic fracturing and its effects on drinking water to begin

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday released the outlines of its long-awaited probe into whether hydraulic fracturing — the unconventional drilling technique that’s led to a boom in domestic natural gas production — is contaminating drinking-water supplies.
Investigators will try to determine the impact of large-scale water withdrawals, aboveground spills of drilling fluids, and the fracturing process itself on water quality and quantity in states where tens of thousands of wells have been drilled in recent years.

Chesapeake, Enterprise to run ethane pipeline

Chesapeake Energy Corp. said Wednesday it will anchor Enterprise Products Partners LP's proposed ethane pipeline from northeastern states to the Gulf Coast....The companies said the pipeline would deliver ethane produced in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio about 1,230 miles to their storage complex for natural gas liquids in Mont Belvieu, Texas.

This is depressing....

The Department of Energy program to monitor CO2 emissions has reported that they increased 6% from 2009 to 2010, an apparently unprecedented "monster" increase.  According to AP

The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record, the U.S. Department of Energy calculated,...The world pumped about 564 million more tons (512 million metric tons) of carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009. That's an increase of 6 percent. That amount of extra pollution eclipses the individual emissions of all but three countries — China, the United States and India, the world's top producers of greenhouse gases.

The DOE program is located at Oak Ridge National Labs (hardly a hippie Biosphere 2 type place).

Marcellus News for Pennsylvania: Nov. 1

The big story today is that the bill proposed by Gov. Corbett for the state to levy an impact fee that would go to local communities (i.e. local impact fee) would also limit ability of the same communities to pass local ordinances that regulate drilling:

The two state legislative chambers are reversing roles on Marcellus Shale regulations, with an impact fee from the House GOP gaining steam and the Senate delaying a vote on its levy proposal until mid-November....

Since then, the Corbett administration has urged lawmakers and staffers to include a provision that would completely pre-empt local zoning ordinances on oil and gas drilling. An administration spokesman declined to confirm that the administration is pushing for state control of drilling rules, but he did say the governor believes local rules are too fragmented.