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Fracking Commission off to a dark start

Submitted by scharrison on Wed, 09/12/2012 - 6:52pm

Dick Cheney would be proud:

With the deck stacked in favor of the drilling industry, the commission held its first meeting Thursday and got right down to asking tough questions about how much of its communications it can hide from the public. According to an Associated Press report, two commission members grilled a state lawyer on the finer points of state public-records laws, especially those related to email. They wanted to know if they could keep some emails to each other private.

This should not come as a surprise to anyone. We still don't know a lot of what transpired during meetings of Cheney's hand-picked energy panel. Except for the frackers being exempted from U.S. laws, of course.

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Yoko Ono speaks out on fracking

Submitted by loftT on Wed, 09/12/2012 - 7:46pm.

at the launch of a new coalition – Artists Against Fracking.

Dr. Tony Ingraffea of Cornell University also spoke:

it is impossible to design any well so it will never leak. Wells will leak. Wells do leak. The best and the brightest in the industry have been trying to solve that problem for a hundred years.

audio clip:
http://usclimateactionnow.org/__oneclick_uploads/2012/09/prof-ingraffea-...

Progressives are the true conservatives.

He's really good

Submitted by scharrison on Wed, 09/12/2012 - 8:47pm.

I've posted a few of his shorter videos here, but there are some really good ones that are over an hour long.

I've been trying to post relatively brief videos (less than ten minutes), just so readers won't have to rearrange their schedules to watch. But a seminar every now and then is good for the soul, right? :)

Misunderstanding of the word "ethics"

Submitted by scharrison on Thu, 09/13/2012 - 9:59am.

The opinion of the commissioner who's supposed to be a conservationist:

This commission, for example, includes people who are designated representatives of industry who will benefit financially from the regulations, a representative of a law firm that will likely do work on shale gas development and whose clients will be affected by the regulation, landowners whose interests will be affected by the regulation, and local elected officials whose political fortunes and compensation may rise or fall on how they represent local interests on the commission. These interests are the things that qualify these people to serve …

Bolding mine. Really? You believe it's necessary to have a financial interest in fracking to qualify as a regulator?

He said it shouldn’t matter that he has the potential to regulate an industry that he could make money off of because he is committed to seeing it done safely.

Okay, I guess it's time for a basic vocabulary exercise:

conflict (v.)
early 15c., from L. conflictus, pp. of confligere "to strike together, be in conflict," from com- "together" (see com-) + fligere "to strike" (see afflict). The noun also dates from early 15c. Psychological sense of "incompatible urges in one person" is from 1859 (hence conflicted, pp. adj.); Phrase conflict of interest was in use by 1743.

When you have two (or more) conflicting motivations, such as money vs public safety, you simply cannot objectively create or evaluate rules governing the object of your conflict.

These are the very reasons drilling was illegal

Submitted by loftT on Thu, 09/13/2012 - 4:21pm.

in NC. Conflicts between land holders will be brutal and since when does this guy think gathering landowners together after 10,000 leases are already sign is going to help anything?

If he's the best advocate we have in NC, we're sunk.

Progressives are the true conservatives.

Good God...

Submitted by Anonymouser (not verified) on Thu, 09/13/2012 - 11:17am.

....this part of the process is only supposed to be the R&D for possible fracking in NC and they want to start keeping even more secrets now? Transparency and open government are memories of the past....