danps's blog

The trustee meeting I attended Tuesday actually began over hundred years ago. In 1910 Ohio voters approved the calling of a constitutional convention, and in 1912 a whole series of amendments were adopted. The Ohio History Central link goes to a short but very good summary, and it's definitely worth taking a minute to read it. Read below the fold...

On Wednesday communities held Freedom From Toxic Fracking Waste rallies to raise awareness on one of the largest environmental risks from fracking: dealing with the waste it produces. Read below the fold...

The fracking industry has dramatically increased its activity in Portage county recently. In some cases the activity is unmistakably tangible (more on that next week), but the real action at the moment seems to be preparing the ground for the deluge. Read below the fold...

I enjoyed the thread in lambert's post and thought I'd throw up a fresh thread on it, along with a few thoughts on it.

I think one of the hazards of a national social/political blog like this is the illusion of smallness. There are commenters here from all over the country (and beyond!), so it's easy to get into a discussion here and think a nationally scoped ambition can be achieved a lot more easily than it really can. There's a sense of "hey, we're all on board here, right? Onward!" Read below the fold...

The quality of reporting on fracking in large outlets has been of varying quality. Day-to-day coverage of the latest developments is usually pretty good, but bigger picture trend pieces have a tendency to be positively fawning towards the industry. A couple of recent articles in the New York Times have been particularly bad, and one of them also foreshadowed an additional development.

The first was a credulous look at how great fracking is for the communities it occurs in. We are told how fat fracking checks are "swelling the bank accounts of some working-class families" in "amounts the recipients say are a bit disorienting." Even better: "More is probably on the way, potentially much more." So these struggling families have suddenly had their financial anxieties erased, their future incomes assured. I'm sure the ombudsman would say that the hazards of fracking were beyond the scope of the article, but wow does it read like a love letter.¹ Read below the fold...

Amy Cook - Getting to You

Read below the fold...

One of the biggest threats fracking poses to the environment is the way it endangers the water supply. It does so in several ways, one of which has large-scale implications. Global impact like that is a little unusual; environmental issues are more likely to be local. Whether it's fracking, lead paint/asbestos in old buildings, or a Superfund site, once you get a few miles away from it the greatest hazard is usually mitigated.

Fracking permanently removes water from the hydrological cycle, though, at which point it may as well be on the far side of the moon for as much use as it is. This goes beyond competition for scarce resources during a dry season, though the oil and gas industry is well positioned to elbow everyone else aside (via) if it comes to that. It is about the slow draining of the amount of water available for human use. Read below the fold...

Working on an old laptop tonight, and I looked through the bookmarks on the browser. It seems like sites come and go, eh? Here are three that I used to at least occasionally check in with, and they now appear to be well and truly dead: Read below the fold...

Thursday's post on Hiram's public fracking meeting mainly covered residents' interaction with local officials. The bigger part of the meeting, though, featured two speakers with ties to the oil and gas industry. Read below the fold...

Tanked Outside by Chasing Pedestrians

Read below the fold...

On Tuesday the town of Hiram held a public meeting with representatives of the company Mountaineer Keystone (MK). MK, a subsidiary of First Reserve Corporation, is set to begin fracking operations in Hiram next month. Read below the fold...

I attended a local government meeting earlier this month in order to keep up with the latest on fracking in our town. Something else interesting happened as well. The meeting began with a budget review. Budget reviews are long and drawn out affairs even when they're not, if you know what I mean. Fifteen minutes of going through line items, projected numbers, shortfalls, and so on can seem very long indeed if you aren't turned on by bookkeeping.

That's a shame, because those kinds of dry, eye glazing exercises are where the real action is at from a policy perspective. As our trustees went through the numbers, one item in particular jumped out at me. That is not because it was the biggest number, but the easiest to understand. The secretary's review included a big, fat zero for funds that had formerly come from the estate tax. It was eliminated entirely for 2010, which had meant less funding for our town. Read below the fold...

And a long distance dedication to Rick Scott.

Read below the fold...

Men Without Hats - Head Above Water

Yes! The "Safety Dance" guys! They're still around! And this song is actually really good.*

Alternate Sunday Morning Music, as well as penance for posting Rae Rae a couple weeks ago: Jason Eady - AM Country Heaven (download). Couldn't find a stream for it though, and I don't like posting You Tube videos unless it's absolutely necessary.

*NOTE: Read below the fold...

On June 17th the Catholic social justice lobbying group NETWORK launched a 15 day Nuns on the Bus tour. (As befits their budding rock star status, they are selling a tour shirt as well.) They are speaking out against the House Republican budget because, as they write: "When the federal government cuts funding to programs that serve people in poverty, we see the effects in our daily work. Simply put, real people suffer. That is immoral." Read below the fold...