"Gushers" in Pennsylvania

It worked out for him

With stories like this becoming more frequent, it must be getting very difficult for Andy Coumo and our state employee unions to continue to forgo the potential tax revenue here in New York.

Two unexpected gushers in northeastern Pennsylvania are helping to illustrate the enormous potential of the Marcellus Shale natural gas field.

Each of the Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. wells in Susquehanna County is capable of producing 30 million cubic feet per day — believed to be a record for the Marcellus and enough gas to supply nearly 1,000 homes for a year. The landowners attached to the wells, who leased the well access, numbering fewer than 25, are splitting hundreds of thousands of dollars in monthly royalties.

We'd wager those royalties are being spent on F-150s, not Saabs.  That's the heart of the matter. 

For those who missed it, here's what's going on in the photo:

Jed Clampett is told by a representative of an oil company that the swamp behind his shack is full of oil. (The oil company employee has been hauled in by Jed's daughter Elly May who asks whether she can keep him.) Later, Mr. Brewster, the head of the oil company, does a deal with Jed. Jed tells Cousin Pearl that he'll receive 25 to 100 of "some new kind of dollar." Pearl, thinking Jed has been "slickered", asks what kind of dollar he's talking about. "Million dollars," Granny, Jed's mother-in-law, replies. "Jed, you're a millionaire," Pearl says.

Whitey driving Netflix rentals

The capture of Whitey Bulger has driven Martin Scorses's 2006 Oscar winner "The Departed, " based on the Bulger story, to #5 on Netflix's rental rankings.  If you haven't seen Jack Nicholson as a fictionalized Whitey, time to update your queue.  Not recommended for sensitive types, however!

Why they oppose fracking

Nice leather jacket, comrade!

Just in time for today's Frackingstock event at Ithaca College, Lonely Conservative discusses The Wall Street Journal's reasoned, balanced overview of shale gas extraction's benefits and risks.

...They dispel many of the myths about fracking, while reminding the industry to minimize risk. I’m surprised New York’s public employee unions aren’t screaming for fracking to increase revenues in order to keep their gravy train rolling.

Our takeaway from the WSJ's piece is found in the second comment, from WSJ reader Randall Dodd (bold added).

The environmental community is going to oppose any and all new development that lowers the cost of energy, because the environmental community isn't really concerned about the environment, it's a political movement with the goal of destroying capitalism and making America into a socialist or communist nation.

Anything that raises the cost of energy damages capitalism. Anything that lowers the cost of energy helps capitalism.

Whitey to face death penalty?

 

If he lives long enough, Whitey Bulger, brother of the former president of the University of Massachusetts,  could be executed for murder in either Florida or Oklahoma.

Florida prosecutors say they intend to try captured mobster James "Whitey" Bulger on charges that he ordered the murder of a gambling executive.

Prosecutors in Miami said Thursday that the Boston Irish mob leader remains under indictment for the 1982 murder of jai alai executive John Callahan. Former FBI agent John Connolly was convicted of murder in 2008 for telling Bulger that Callahan was cooperating with investigators looking into Bulger's role in the 1981 slaying of Oklahoma businessman Roger Wheeler.

The Oregonian:  Everything you always wanted to know about Whitey Bulger.

Whitey Bulger nabbed

Longtime Boston area fugitive and FBI most wanted man James"Whitey" Bulger was arrested yesterday in Santa Monica, CA.  Wanted for 19 murders, the sheriff has been on his trail since he vanished in 1994.  Bulger was nabbed only two days after the FBI began running a series of TV spots focusing on Whitey's long time girlfriend and suspected traveling companion Catherine Greig.

Young Whitey

We first became interested in Whitey's story when we learned that while Whitey was on the lam, his brother Billy, a powerful Massachusetts politician, was serving as president of the University of Massachusetts.   As academia became the center of power in the Finger Lakes, we were fascinated with the higher ed - organized crime connection.

Whitey stayed out of prison by corrupting politicians and lawmen with cash and favors.  A lot of Boston characters must be having a rough morning.  Peter Gelzinis speculates in the Boston Herald:

Maybe now we’ll begin to learn how The White Man managed to survive out there for the last 16 years. How did he access all that cash?...

Will he walk into court armed with all kinds of salacious details about the “working arrangement” he had with the FBI? Will Whitey rat out his rat keepers?

Whitey’s return clears the way for our version of the Nuremberg Trials. The man piled up a lot of bodies, and left behind a great many people who long ago gave up on the idea of getting any justice by seeing this man answer for his alleged crimes.

Definitive "fracking jobs" analysis

Fracking opponents want you to believe that gas drilling won't help Upsate's dying economy.  CNY blogger Unlikely Hospitalist has researched the economic benefits of hydrofracking currently being enjoyed by our neighbors in Pennsylvania.   The data is overwhelming.

Last month, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry published a report that showed a nearly 1300% increase in core Marcellus industry jobs in the Northern Tier counties of Bradford, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga and Wyoming since 2008." That nearly 48,000 people have been hired in the last year by industries related to drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation, and 71% of those people were Pennsylvania residents".

This report was good news to everyone but the organized opposition to hydraulic fracturing...

The Finger Lakes'  "organized opposition to hydraulic fracturing" gang dominates the conversation in every venue.  For instance, this Saturday's Frackingstock event at Ithaca College:

The Epic No Frack Event will take place from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. at the Whalen Center, Ford Hall and Campus Center. A number of speakers will discuss hydraulic fracturing, including Sandra Steingraber, Ithaca College professor and author of "Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis." Other speakers include an EPA whistleblower and several filmmakers.

"Fracking is the biggest threat to environmental health in this area of upstate New York that I've ever come across in 20 years of looking at public health threats," Steingraber said. "Happily, because we have a temporary moratorium here, New York is alone in kind of pushing the pause button. So we have some time to ask ourselves whether this is something that we want to permit or prohibit."

We note that Professor Steingraber already has a job.  She and her accomplices are working overtime to make sure nobody else does.  

We assume that the fossil-fuel-opposing celebrants at Saturday's festivities will be be walking up the hill to Ithaca College, where they will then toss their iPhones and laptops into the recycling bin.

Another baby step towards school merger

At this rate, our grandchildren will be paying 100% of their incomes for superintendents' salaries and merger studies:

The four Seneca County School Systems are broaching the touchy subject of merger in light of ongoing state aid cuts. In July, school Boards for the Romulus, Seneca Falls, South Seneca, and Waterloo districts will be asked to green light a merger feasiblity study.