Why did Cuomo delay fracking decision again?

What's that look about?

Why has Andy Cuomo suddenly decided to delay hydrofracking for another twenty-eleven years?  Today, Assembly candidate Bill Nojay theorized why Cuomo the Younger would write off the Southern Tier's 20 percent unemployed workers, and we think Bill has hit the nail on the head.

Bill blames Cuomo's decision to study the "health effects" of hydrofracking on the Lybian terrorists who raped, murdered, and mutilated our ambassador.  According to Nojay, the breaking story that our diplomats in Benghazi had requested increased security before the embassy was attacked, but were denied by Hillary Clinton's State Department, will mean the end of our former junior senator's political career.  And no mo' Hillary means Andy has an open shot the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination.   So, Nojay hypothesizes,  our most recent Governor Cuomo needs to keep the Democrats' environmental wacko majority on his side.

We think Mr. Nojay is on to something. 

Boom times in Tioga

Not Tioga County, NY, however, that's Tioga, North Dakota.

Hollywood swell wants to keep you poor

Wealthy actor Matt Damon has enlisted in the war against abundant energy.

MATT DAMON is making the dreams of environmentalists come true. The Cambridge-native-turned-Hollywood-heavyweight will star in an anti-fracking film, his reps confirm to Politico.com. “The Promised Land,” which Matt also co-wrote, is about hydraulic fracturing, the practice of extracting natural gas from shale rock.

Be sure to check out the comments on the above-linked Boston Herald piece.  Rick Moore tweets:

The "China Syndrome" of fracking?  

 h/t: BH

Barfrack and Wafflin' Andy

Famous natural gas storage tank, Boston, MA

Two of our wealthy career politician rulers have suddenly switched sides on shale gas recovery.  America's most anti-energy president has suddenly become Barfrack Obama.

The Wall Street Journal has an opinion column noting that Barack Obama has done an about face and now seems to be boosting the prospects of natural gas (especially that derived from shale gas fields). The White House has released a report that notes the important role that shale gas has played in helping to spark job and industrial growth. The White House mentions the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania as playing an especially important role...

Meanwhile, in Albany, governor Andy Cuomo, who we suspected had already promised billions of dollars in fracking revenue to his state employee union masters, in spite of the fact that the rest of New York's anti-prosperity Democrats are fighting fracking tooth and nail, has suddenly gone a-wafflin'.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget proposal will not include any funding for additional gas-drilling regulators, he said Monday.

Speaking after delivering remarks at a Martin Luther King Jr. remembrance ceremony, Cuomo told reporters he won’t move to add the appropriate staff until the state Department of Environmental Conservation determines whether to allow high-volume hydraulic fracturing.

It’s a “chicken and the egg” situation, Cuomo said.

“You would not be hiring staff to regulate hydrofracking unless you believed you were going ahead with hydrofracking,” Cuomo said. “And we haven’t made that determination. So the budget won’t anticipate hydrofracking approval.”

What's up with the commissars?  We suspect it has to do with Barfrack wanting to be reelected president, and Wafflin' Andy looking to be reelected governor.  Ed Lasky has another theory about Frackin' Barry's suddden crush on shale, however.

George Soros -- a major donor to Obama, a major backer of so-called 527 groups, and the sugar daddy of the Democratic Party -- has recently made a major investment in a company that would be enriched if natural gas takes off as a fuel source for cars, trucks and buses.

 Apologies to Mrs. Howe for the run-on sentence, we couldn't stop ourselves.

We're not hobbits

Richard Downey lives in the real world:

No man is an island.  We’re not hobbits in the shire.  From our earliest days we’ve depended on others outside our valley to produce goods that suit our needs and desires.  Somebody outside of Otsego County made the Prius that was parked in front of me yesterday.  Nobody walked to the DEC hearings.  Few of us make their own clothes.  We buy them at Walmart.  Sure, we should eat only local foods but … oh, those oranges!

EPA chief: No proof Wyoming frack pollutes

EPA chief Lisa Jackson

Earlier this month, the Finger Lakes' anti-prosperity elites got the vapors when every news outlet in the free world screamed that Obama's EPA* had determined hydraulic fracturing in Pavillion, Wyoming had polluted water wells.  Our local status quo gang assured us that this was the death knell for fracking.

Two highly outspoken local opponents predicted the Wyoming report would play a role in the regional debate.

"We had an industry running around saying there's never been a case of pollution," said Wes Gillingham, director of Catskill Mountainkeeper. "We knew they'd find chemical in ground water ... It's very significant in debunking the line that industry has been using to say it's safe."

Agreed, said Walter Hang, an Ithaca-based anti-drilling advocate.
"It's very, very useful that EPA is now urging caution about going forward without adequate safeguards," Hang said. "Similar things could happen if New York state approves drilling; groundwater could be polluted."

Hold your methane-emitting horses, pardners!  No less an authority than Obama's EPA Commisar Lisa Jackson informs us that the Wyoming report indicates no such thing.   Tracy Marisa brings us up to date.

After personally analyzing the findings, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said that, with respect to Pavillion, "we have absolutely no indication now that drinking water is at risk." Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that "the jury's still out" on the validity of the report. Tom Doll of the Wyoming O&GCC said "more tests are needed to rule out ... surface contamination."

We appreciate Marisa bringing Jackson's comments to our attention, and are waiting for the mainstream media to headline the story... waiting... waiting...

*EPA: Employment Prevention Agency

Pennsylvania fracking impacts New York

Colonial Manor under construction

 

It seems there's something of an economic upturn happening in Upstate New York's Southern Tier.  Demand for housing in the formerly moribund region near the Pennsylvania border is being addressed by the opening of  Colonial Manor, a new 144 unit apartment complex in Horseheads. The spiffy residences will rent in the $895 to $1,295 range. 

For those who've spent any part of the past few decades in the vicinity, the concept of a housing boom in the perennially depressed Tier might be difficult to comprehend.  A local politician explains:

Chemung County Executive Tom Santulli said the project should ease a housing shortage in Chemung County.

“This will help fill the gap which I think will continue to grow,” Santulli said. “In the next 12 months (Chemung County) will gain an additional 1,000 jobs. Maybe 2,000 jobs will be created.”

What's driving the job growth in long-depressed Chemung?  Colonial Manor manager Helen Allis has a theory:

"Having the gas drilling...."

Bold added.  Shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania's Northern Tier is driving economic growth in the adjoining Southern Tier of New York.  That's bad news only to those opposed to prosperity.  

Editor's note:  For our readers around the globe, the statement above is not a typo.  New York's Southern Tier is located just north of Pennsylvania's Northern Tier.  

Why is Obama killing the energy industry?

Serfs

 

Mike knows why:

You might think my proposition–that the only away to make sense of this rogue regime’s actions is to assume the worst about their intentions–is a bit much. If so, you should ask yourself: if he was actually trying to destroy America’s energy industry, what exactly would he be doing differently?

Why is Obama killing jobs?

Obama has just iced an already-approved shale gas drilling project in Ohio.  Effect on the common man: 200,000 desperately needed jobs will not be created. 

Lonely Conservative asks "why?"

Again, I ask, why doesn’t President Obama want Americans to have jobs?

LC commenter "Bob" answers the question.

When you think of the enemy within, think of Barak Hussein Obama, because, for whatever reason, the man is set on destroying our American Republic.

City council bans gas

Sitting in toasty comfort on a chilly November evening, the Common Council of the intellectual hub of the Finger Lakes, Ithaca, NY, last night banned gas drilling within the city limits. 

Preparing for a future without their City Hall's natural gas fired heating system, the council has redesigned its chambers - architect's rendering above.  No word yet on fate of the building's coal powered lighting system.

Who is "the gas industry"?

The force behind the energy industry

Reposted from July 28, 2011

Here in the Finger Lakes, it seems every self-important leftist follows the "no-fracking " dogma religiously, without considering opposing points of view.  Since these right thinking drones are found everywhere in an academia-dominated bioregion like ours, the media has no trouble locating them when they need an opinion on the evil plutocrats running the shale gas industry.

The pro-energy, pro-jobs, pro-prosperity point of view is always represented as "the gas industry."  What the "mainstream" media, which does not do well with economics, is missing is that the "gas industry," as they understand it, does not exist.  Unlike coercive government programs, the "gas industry" would not exist if every man, woman, child and reporter didn't choose to consume energy on a daily basis.  The "gas industry" is really nothing but a willing servant, doing the demanding bidding of the common man.  But the "gas industry" is much easier to demonize than, say, Mrs. Smith's fifth grade class, which can study environmentalism in a nice warm classroom in January in the Finger Lakes, instead of shivering in a crude shelter in the woods, hoping to survive until spring.

What we really need is a way to create energy from the Finger Lakes' unlimited supply of hypocrisy.  Why, even our newly arrived "off the grid" cultists are usually hiding a gasoline powered generator from Lowe's somewhere on the homestead.  The next time an anti-energy "friend of the earth" asks you to sign her "let's outlaw fracking" petition, you should first ask her to shut down her website, give up air travel, stop drinking coffee, and turn over her smart phone, Volvo keys, prescription drugs and imported synthetic clothing.  

And, speaking of energy consumers, Lonely Conservative has also grown impatient.

We’re surrounded by so many stupid people who buy into the crap the left is spewing, but we’ll never see them turn off their power. Where the heck do they think it comes from?

For fracking before he was against it

RFK, Jr.'s modest Westchester cottage

Unlikely Hospitalist is calling for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be kicked off New York governor Andy Cuomo's "High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel."  Seems the wealthy leftist lawyer appears to be an anti-fracking fanatic, based on Kennedy's recent post on the subject.  In the Hospitalist's view, such a zealot is incapable of making reasoned recommendations on shale gas regulation.

It is clear that he is incapable of putting politics aside and performing the task with any sort of professional integrity.

UH further points out Kennedy's bald-faced hypocrisy.  One might recall that only a few years ago, Bobby Jr. was calling for an immediate conversion of the country's electric generation to, yes, natural gas.  UH quotes RFK Jr.'s 2009 statement:

The giant advantage of a quick conversion from coal to gas is the quickest route for jumpstarting our economy and saving our planet.

The fact that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has flip-flopped on gas does not surprise us.  It's been clear for many years that Bobby, Jr. is an unbalanced crazy person, protected from the consequences of his actions by a famous name and an inherited fortune - Google the guy sometime.  What does shock us, however, is that such a lunatic was selected by our supposedly intelligent governor  for any position of responsibility.  Is the fix in?

Let us know if you'd like to see more on RFK, Jr. here.  Meanwhile, for a visual tour of Kennedy's spectacular 4 bedroom, 6 bath home on 12 acres, adjoining a private 30 acre lake in upscale Westchester County, click here.

"Butt out!"

Broome County state senator Thomas Libous, a proponent of shale gas development in his Southern Tier district, tells downstate politicians to frack off.

"Look, I respect that everyone has an opinion, but I don't go to New York City or western New York or Long Island and tell them how to legislate," Libous said. "They're elected by the people there and they do their thing. We seem to have so many experts all around the state telling the people of the Southern Tier what's good for us. And you know what? I'm getting a little tired of it."

Water/energy meeting tonight

Tonight, 7:00, Dryden, NY, hosted by Dryden Safe Energy Coalition:

The Dryden Safe Energy Coalition (DSEC) is holding the second in its series of public education meetings on energy development (the first was a legal issues forum held in Binghamton on August 22nd). The second forum is on “Water and Energy Development,” and will be held on Wednesday, September 7th, 7:30 – 9:00 P.M., at the Dryden Fire Hall on Route 13 in the Village of Dryden.

 Moderated by Dave Vieser of WHCU-AM.

Jedi knights to ban fracking

Late to the party, academic theme park City of Ithaca, NY is fixin' to ban fracking, too.  Getting right to the point, the liberal city's Ithaca's board of chosen leftists wants to make sure no shale gas is extracted within the city limits.  But how to ban the evil practice?

Alderman Eric Rosario, I-2nd, said that recently retired alderwoman Maria Coles, D-1st, had done much of research into municipal responses to "hydro-fracking," before she left office. Rosario has taken over as the point person. His first action was to bring Tompkins County planner Darby Kiley before the planning committee on July 20 to give them an overview of the issue.

"I went to the TANG [Tompkins Addresses Natural Gas] meeting recently, this is a task force of the Tompkins County Council of Governments, which is kind of like the local Jedi knights," said Rosario. "We should be a part of response to the second draft of the supplemental generic environmental impact statement [SGEIS]. Gaps have already been identified, and the community impact portion has not been released yet."

Bold added.  While the alderpersyn Rosario diddles with the "response to the second draft of the supplemental generic environmental impact statement,"  we'll point out that almost all the residents of fair Ithaca survive its notorious arctic winters by heating with, yes, clean burning natural gas.  Community impact?  Is it cold in here?

We got gas

Lots of gas in the Marcellus Shale.

The U. S. Geological Survey says the Marcellus Shale contains some 84 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, recoverable natural gas, far more than thought nearly a decade ago.

Tuesday's figure is much higher than the last government assessment in 2002, which suggested only about 2 trillion feet of recoverable gas.

Another Finger Lakes town bans gas drilling

Alternative fuel delivery in Ulysses

Jumping on the anti-energy bandwagon, one more rural Cornell University bedroom community, the Town of Ulysses, NY, has passed another me-too gas drilling ban.

Ulysses residents crowded the Town Hall in Trumansburg to show support for the Town Board's vote to ban hydrofracking for natural gas.

Ulysses joined the Towns of Ithaca and Dryden as the third municipality in Tompkins County to ban the process.

In order to maintain purity, the town board also banned the use of natural gas.  Hundreds of cheering Ulysses residents lined up to to sign NYSEG disconnect forms, while local twig gatherers pitched their services.

Top NY Dem signs big gas lease!

J.R.  Jacobs

Forget the debt ceiling michegoss, this is real news:  Unlikely Hospitalist reports that the chairman of the New York State Democratic Party, one Jay Jacobs, has signed a gas lease for his 140 acre ranch in Pennsylvania.

Jay Jacobs has committed a cardinal sin. He has signed a contract with Hess Corp and received per-acre money upfront to drill 140 acres of land at his Tyler Hill summer camp in Pennsylvania. His claims of doing his own research and coming up with an honest conclusion will not sit well with those in his party.

The warm hearted physician worries that the gas lease may cost Jacobs his job as the Empire State's top Democrat, but we are not concerned.  140 acres at $3,000 per acre, plus royalties, should help ease the pain.

A local speaks out

In a letter to Dryden, NY's town board, resident Ron Szymanski puts Dryden's me-too fracking ban  in perspective.  Syzmanski lists the logical problems raised by such a ban, and hits what we think could be the result most harmful to the ordinary Finger Lakes citizen.

ANTI-BUSINESS.  The natural gas drilling ban limits opportunities for local businesses, from trucking to restaurants.  The County recently dropped a road ordinance because of its unintended consequences on local businesses.  In addition, it denies Dryden residents access to jobs and further compromises our tax base.

We suspect that prohibiting the growth of easy entry jobs, and the prosperity those jobs might bring to locals, is one of the unstated goals of the organized defenders of the region's status quo.

Who is the gas industry?

The force behind the energy industry

Here in the Finger Lakes, it seems every self-important leftist follows the "no-fracking " dogma religiously, without considering opposing points of view.  Since these right thinking drones are found everywhere in an academia-dominated bioregion like ours, the media has no trouble locating them when they need an opinion on the evil plutocrats running the shale gas industry.

The pro-energy, pro-jobs, pro-prosperity point of view is always represented as "the gas industry."  What the "mainstream" media, which does not do well with economics, is missing is that the "gas industry," as they understand it, does not exist.  Unlike coercive government programs, the "gas industry" would not exist if every man, woman, child and reporter didn't choose to consume energy on a daily basis.  The "gas industry" is really nothing but a willing servant, doing the demanding bidding of the common man.  But the "gas industry" is much easier to demonize than, say, Mrs. Smith's fifth grade class, which can study environmentalism in a nice warm classroom in January in the Finger Lakes, instead of shivering in a crude shelter in the woods, hoping to survive until spring.

What we really need is a way to create energy from the Finger Lakes' unlimited supply of hypocrisy.  Why, even our newly arrived "off the grid" cultists are usually hiding a gasoline powered generator from Lowe's somewhere on the homestead.  The next time an anti-energy "friend of the earth" asks you to sign her "let's outlaw fracking" petition, you should first ask her to shut down her website, give up air travel, stop drinking coffee, and turn over her smart phone, Volvo keys, prescription drugs and imported synthetic clothing.  

And, speaking of energy consumers, Lonely Conservative has also grown impatient.

We’re surrounded by so many stupid people who buy into the crap the left is spewing, but we’ll never see them turn off their power. Where the heck do they think it comes from?