Issustration from Times book review.
This is not news to followers of this blog, but we applaud the telling of the tale of misery and exploitation of ordinary Pennsylvanians. Click through and read the book review, buy the book, and send your comments to your PA legislators. It is the politicians who have enabled this travesty. They need to know that we are fed up with the corruption, self-interest, and abuse.
What’s gerrymandering got to do with Fracking? Everything. They, the legislators, don’t listen to you when you protest fracking because they don’t have to. The are safe and secure regardless of how you vote. Here is Jim Greenwood explaining why…
Not part of FDPA? Check it out and meet people, both Republicans and Democrats, who are dedicated to having our democracy represent We the People.
Read the article in the Courier Times today. You’ll not only get a great overview of what’s afoot here. You will gain an important lesson in the down and dirty world of money and influence in government. Ostensibly, it’s about a ban on fracking in the Delaware Basin. but the DRBC decision was to propose rule-making, not ban fracking.
Between now and November, DRBC staff will be drafting language for regulations to govern not just drilling operations, but also the taking of water from the river to be used in fracking and also the disposal of the contaminated waste water. Our watchdog groups like the Delaware Riverkeeper Network smell a rat. The general public has no opportunity for influence until the proposed regulations are written. But the politicians and lobbyists will be hard at it, working to influence the phrasing and content of those rules. We’d like to think that common sense and science would prevail. But that is rarely the case. it will be very difficult for We the People to be heard in this process.
Courier-Times Photo of the Crowd
Stay tuned. If you snooze, we lose.
The Delaware River Basin Commission is a regulatory panel that decides what may be removed from or discharged to our Delaware River watershed. Members represent the United States (Corps of Engineers), New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Each entity has a seat at the table and a vote. But the individuals, the people who sit in those powerful chairs do not vote based on their personal conviction or discernment. The speak and vote for each of the Governors, and the President of the US.
Sure, most of the routine permitting of water companies and waste treatment operations is left to the staff these board members oversee. But issues like fracking are highly politicized. Lobbyists and industry lawyers make it their business to influence the policy that determines how these board members decide things.
The tension was palpable when the Colonel representing the Corps of Engineers voted against the motion that directed the staff to draft rules banning and regulating fracking in the Delaware River Basin. Everyone knew that she was following her orders and had no discretion whatever. As the roll call proceeded, other panelists made it clear that they too were speaking for those in higher authority.
As a courtesy to the many concerned citizens present, the panel permitted a public comment period after the meeting adjourned. It was not on the record, and it would not be heard by the real decision makers unless those who sat on the dais were extraordinarily committed to reporting the passion the various speakers expressed. These commissioners, many of the second or third alternates for the primary commission members, were there to take the verbal punches and try to remain civil and be cordial sparing those for whom they are surrogates.
If any one of them experienced themselves as guardians of a public trust, the moral injury they personally sustain should earn them a medal. When a person is ordered to do something that violates their deeply held moral and ethical convictions, when such an order comes from one who has absolute authority over the person, and when the stakes are very high, doing that abhorrent thing tears at the soul of one’s humanity. It’s a high-risk job if you really care about doing the right thing.
There will be enormous pressure for the DBRC to create loopholes and wiggle room in the regulations so that the energy industry can drill their wells and build their pipelines. The process will happen without public scrutiny, except when leaks happen. Insiders and influence peddlers will seek to influence the phrasing and the content. Political deals may be made. And, when the proposed rules are finally published and opened for public comment, it will be damned hard to get any meaningful changes adopted. Why? Again, because the people in those chairs listening to the public are not empowered to vote using their discernment and conscience – they will be under orders decided by a political bureaucracy and given before the hearings even begin.
The Pope speaks about climate change and morality …
In the frightening denial of reality we are seeing in Washington, and with the State of Pennsylvania acting against the interests of local communities and individuals this film will be a timely reminder of the grim facts. America and the world can not delay the transition to non-carbon energy sources. Delay has terrible consequences for everyone, but especially for those already surviving at a bare subsistence level.
Watch. Truth. In theatres July 28, 2017.
“In a public lecture delivered last week and published online Tuesday [5/10/16], award-winning Canadian author 
and social justice activist Naomi Klein argues the dire situation of climate change, coupled with failing political and economic systems, is creating a world where nobody will be left unaffected.
‘It is not about things getting hotter and wetter but things getting meaner and uglier, unless we change the corrosive values that are pitting people against each other,’ Klein said last Wednesday as she gave the 2016 Edward W. Said London Lecture at the Royal Festival Hall in London.”
Just the facts – Check this out.
Dr. Anthony Ingraffea and his colleagues at Physicians Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy have been working for years to create an archive of the science that reports on fracking. It’s no surprise that the preponderance of evidence shows unacceptable harm to people and the environment. This is not hype or rhetoric. It stands in sharp contrast to the slick whitewash of the energy industry PR copy.
PSE Healthy Energy has studied this literature and provides you with an overview that’s understandable in layperson’s terms. Browse the site – it’s eye-opening and rigorously accurate.
“Global warming is, in the end, not about the noisy political battles here on the planet’s surface. It actually happens in constant, silent interactions in the atmosphere, where the molecular structure of certain gases traps heat that would otherwise radiate back out to space. If you get the chemistry wrong, it doesn’t matter how many landmark climate agreements you sign or how many speeches you give. And it appears the United States may have gotten the chemistry wrong. Really wrong.” [emphasis added]
Bill McKibben opens his compelling overview of the US response to the threat of global warming with these grave words in his article that appeared in The Nation. This is not news to our regular readers but McKibben does a masterful job of making the case. As founder of 350.org, a Schumann Distinguished Scholar, and winner of the Ghandi Peace Award, McKibben has long been a credible source. He translates his panoramic knowledge of environmental science into terms the rest of us can grasp.
December 9th, 2015, 9:15 am. In just a few minutes I will be leaving home to testify at the Delaware River Basin Commission’s (DRBC) business meeting. These five people representing New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and the US Government grant permits for projects that impinge on the watershed or the Delaware River itself. So they decide about pipelines, drilling of wells, and industrial processes on the river banks. They have a moratorium in place on shale gas extraction permits in the basin. But they are considering allowing pipelines to cross the watershed and the river. Here is what I plan to say:
DRBC
I am Richmond Shreve, of Newtown, PA. I’m a grandfather concerned for his grandchildren’s future and I’m here to speak for them. I want to be sure that each of you is mindful of the effect of your decisions on their future not just in terms of stewardship of the Delaware River, but in terms of global environment.
Only half of the 9,000 shale gas wells already drilled in Pennsylvania are in production. Yet the glut of domestic gas has driven the price per million BTU as low as $2 and forecasters don’t see it going above $3.40 until 2020 or later. And 16,000 more drilling permits are already approved.
These numbers tell us the market is already in oversupply with more is coming on line. We are moving from an energy boom to an energy bust.
Sure, Japan and other countries may pay a premium price to buy and burn some of the excess. But you and I know that atmospheric carbon is changing the climate. The world’s present known reserve of fossil fuels represents five times what it will take to exceed the 2 degrees centigrade tipping point and trigger a century of catastrophic global warming.
We must not burn all that carbon fuel. If we do, our grandchildren’s prospects look grim. So when you are asked to permit more pipelines, or to allow more fracking, or to accept toxic waste facilities I beg you to be mindful of all the consequences. You are like the legendary Casey Jones at the throttle of a colossal engine racing toward a train wreck.
Don’t leave your grandchildren to say, “They didn’t see it coming. They couldn’t stop it.”
Public comments like mine are allowed only two minutes, sometimes less. So I will have to read fast. I’m hoping my words will speak to their hearts and stiffen their resistance to the enormous pressure to get gas out of the ground and sell it to the highest bidder. If you share my hope, print this post and attach it to a handwritten note to your legislative representatives both state and federal. Perhaps what can’t be acknowledged for political reasons will be acknowledged for personal ones.
I was at the live presentation and I highly recommend that you watch the video. Professor Ingraffea, like so many brilliant scholars, makes his talk interesting and at times amusing despite its complexity. This lecture is very accessible and rigorously grounded in factual information. You can trust Ingraffea’s analysis, and if you are skeptical, you can go right to his sources. I’m eager to get this link up on the site now, and hope to make time to review it and quote some highlights later.
