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

Gillibrand to New Yorkers: Freeze!

Millionaire lawyers Gillibrand, Clinton

Despite the best efforts of anti-energy fanatics, increased production of natural gas, resulting in dropping prices, is putting a little money back in the pockets of some New Yorkers.  Empire State politicians have presided over some of the highest energy prices in the nation, so we're happy to see gas users get a little relief.

Not everyone has access to natural gas, of course, and the millions who heat with fuel oil are suffering with steadily rising prices.  But shivering New York citizens take heart - millionaire ex-tobacco lawyer and US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wants to help you - by giving your tax dollars to well-connected crony capitalists:

"I am hoping the president will focus on how we can compete with China in the green energy revolution, how we can actually retain the manufacturing of green energy in America," Gillibrand said. "We have great manufacturing assets in upstate New York and on Long Island. We have some of the most cutting-edge energy research in the world in New York state. We want to see 'made in America' again."

Gillibrand favors a 30 percent federal tax credit for commercial, industrial or residential investment in energy efficiency.

That would particularly help New York, she said, because the state is a leader in developing new energy technologies, including solar and wind technology, and lithium car batteries, fuel cells and bio-digesters.

Gillibrand saying anything so stupid in response to her constituents' real suffering  confirms that she assumes nobody will ever find out what she said, so please share this with your neighbors.

Toes feeling a little numb this winter?  Just wait until Kirsten's bio-digesters warm up.

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.

"Economic development councils" will prevent economic development

Planned city, now abandoned, former USSR

Who believes that that way to revive the once-Empire State's moribund economy is to allow the people who got us here to spend billions more of our tax dollars on Soviet-style central planning?  We'll tell you who:  Andy Cuomo and his gang of politicians, union bosses, academics and crony capitalists.

Dryden resident Tracy Marisa, speaking for the Dryden Safe Energy Coalition, takes to the Ithaca Journal to to explain why Cuomo's merry band is doomed to fail.

Central planning is not what New York needs; we need less government planning and a reduction in the role of government.

New York starts in the race for jobs with two strikes against it: one of the highest total tax burdens in the nation and excessive regulation coupled with bureaucratic administration. These are the problems that need to be addressed.

Marisa reminds us who's riding in Cuomo's clown car.

The composition of these councils also demonstrates a failure to understand how to achieve economic development as a majority of their members are drawn from academia and government.

Marisa provides alternative suggestions for shocking Upstate back to life.  Be sure to read the whole thing. 

Opening of the Erie Canal, 1825

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?

"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."

PA booms, NY suffers

The New York Post discovers that New York City's Upstate neighbors could benefit from increased economic activity.  What took them so long?

‘If it wasn’t for the gas business, none of these people would be working right now,” David Dalrymple said, pointing to one of his crews building a road in Athens Township, Pa.

By “gas business,” he meant drilling made possible by “fracking” -- a process for extracting natural gas that’s legal in Pennsylvania but not yet in New York.

The Post catches up with Upstate bloggers in getting to the heart of the matter.

Then there’s Jennifer Huntington, who operates a 1,000-acre dairy farm with 500 cows in Middlefield, NY.

She has a lease with a gas company for a vertical well on her farm. The well could produce enough gas to service the municipal buildings and hospital nearby -- and give her the much-needed capital to make improvements on the farm. Work there wouldn’t even require fracking.

But a movement led by academics and part-time residents -- people wealthy enough to enjoy the country life without worrying about making a living -- got the town to ban drilling altogether. She has sued the town to get the ban lifted.

The war against fracking is a class war.  Our elites don't want truck drivers, waitresses, building contractors, furniture salesmen, hair dressers, satellite TV installers, or any other of Upstate's non-anointed masses to be able to upset the status quo.  To the swells, their neighbors' financial struggles are nothing more than necessary collateral damage.

Protestors fight to keep Finger Lakes propane prices high

None of these folks use any fossil fuel

Overshadowed by the Finger Lakes elite's war against shale gas, those of us who heat our modest homes, or lakefront mansions, with costly propane, are also under attack.

Inergy Midstream, a Kansas City based gas distribution company, proposes to store the popular fuel in the former International Salt caverns, 2600 feet under under Seneca Lake  An existing propane terminal in the Town of Reading, north of Watkins Glen, would be expanded, serving both truck and rail transportation.  Of course, the prospect of increased economic activity, jobs, and lower heating bills for the common folk has drawn the attention of the "no fracking" crowd.

The usual suspects turned out by the Prius load to express their outrage at last night's DEC hearing on the project.  As is usually the case at these affairs, the only pro-storage speaker was from the energy company.  None the less, Inergy president Bill Moller made his case.

Bill Moller, president of Kansas City-based Inergy Midstream, the company proposing the project, was surrounded by project opponents and peppered with questions during an informational session before the hearing began.

“I don’t know when home heating became the enemy of this community,” he told them. “We’re providing a cheaper, reliable, cleaner-burning source of energy. That’s what we’re doing here....”

There’s a high demand for propane in the region, Moller said, and that’s because it’s currently shipped by truck from other parts of the U.S.

“New Yorkers are paying the highest propane prices in the country,” Moller said.

Around 800 opponents, none of whom apparently heat their homes with propane, use a barbeque grill, or have ever visited a propane-powered winery, heard Moller explain:

...that propane has been stored in the town for about 50 years, and that from 1964 to 1984, about 4 million barrels were stored in the same salt caverns, and said propane accounts for 25 percent of Schuyler County's energy use.

"We're not storing fuel oil," Moller said. "We're not storing crude oil. We're not storing coal. We're storing clean energy. Clean fossil fuels."

Bold added.  Word on the street is that the anti-energy mob was rude, or downright hostile, to anyone who was not opposed to the project.  

After Moller spoke, however, the 800 or so energy opponents who made the trip to Watkins lined up to discard their smart phones and give up the keys to their cars, then walked home silently in the dark.

Soros cashing in on fracking...

San Leon drilling rig in Nebraska, USA

  ... in Poland.

San Leon Energy Plc, the natural- gas explorer backed by billionaire George Soros and Blackrock Inc., expects its Polish shale licenses to be more profitable than U.S. deposits, the company’s exploration director said.

San Leon, which became one of the leading shale gas explorers in Poland after buying Realm Energy International Corp. for $142 million last month, seeks to profit either through so-called farm-outs with a cash component or asset sales once it develops its fields and proves they can produce gas, John Buggenhagen said in an interview in Warsaw.

Its should be easy to understand that if billionaire financier George Soros is invested in natural gas in Poland, he can make more money by obstructing natural gas production in the US.  That would explain the George Soros/Sundance Festival/Josh Fox connection, might it not? 

San Leon Energy is just the kind of huge, multinational exploiter of the earth's resources that have New York's anti-energy true believers' panties in wad.   Rather that targeting Soros, however, these zombies would rather burn gasoline driving all over the Finger Lakes, fighting to raise the cost of their neighbor's heating fuel. The real class war is taking place right under our noses.

And don't forget that your tax dollars are being used to support the Polish fracking boom!

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.

Sharpton pal Schneiderman conflicted on fracking

Sharpton under arrest, 2008

Back in April, we questioned New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's connection to race hustler  Al Sharpton, and wondered if most New York taxpayers realized that a leftist radical had become our state's highest legal officer.

Now we find Schneiderman, who ran for office promising to prevent the use of hydrofracking to recover New York's vast shale gas reserves, in the position of having to defend the practice in court.

Whe n Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was on the campaign trail last year, he released an environmental agenda with seven major initiatives he intended to take up in office.In red type, the document listed his top priority when it comes to protecting New York's land, air and water: "Sue to Prohibit Hydrofracking."

"He will make sure that no drilling took place until it was deemed to be safe and regulated by the DEC and EPA," the document reads, citing his "proven record of fighting against this new and unproven technology."

Fast forward to 2011, and Schneiderman now will likely face the task of defending a set of regulations proposed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation that would allow for high-volume hydraulic fracturing, with a bevy of restrictions, to move forward in New York.

While it might appear that New York is slowly inching toward possibly allowing limited horizontal drilling at some point in the distant future, analysts should try applying logical analysis to to Schneiderman's official position:

But Schneiderman, the former Democratic state senator from Manhattan, said he'll be able to balance his concerns about natural gas drilling with his duty as the state's top lawyer. Legal challenges are widely expected at some point, and Schneiderman has said he'll represent the state, as the law requires him to do.

"I think we're going to end up with a set of regulations that are designed to ensure that fracking is only done safely, and that has partly to do with how you regulate the process and partly to do with the areas that you allow fracking," Schneiderman said in a recent interview with Gannett's Albany bureau.

"That's an ongoing process with the DEC. They are my client, and we're hopeful that we're going to come up with a good set of regulations."

So we have a radical leftist, openly influenced by Al Sharpton, as New York's designated defender of shale gas.  Don't hold your breath.

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?

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.