Sewage plant in Pennsylvania that treats wastewater from natural gas drilling operations ( CREDIT: PROPUBLICA/JOAQUIN SAPIEN)
NATURAL GAS PRODUCTION IN THE U.S. IS A BRIDGE TO….MORE NATURAL GAS PRODUCTION.
(AlterNet)
Jennifer Krill challenges the gas industry’s claim that natural gas is a bridge to a “clean energy future.” To the contrary, the “fracking” process leads to the opening of gas wells not “somewhere else” but literally in people’s backyards as gas is now being mined in areas that would not have been productive without this new technology—and the disposition of gas production wastes is as toxic at that of coal.
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EURO-U.S. WAR ON LIBYA; IT ISN’T ABOUT THE ECONOMY, STUPID.
(Dissident Voice)
The belief that foreign forces have singled out Libya for support of its “rebels” because of its oil resources is but one of the several misconceptions about the nature of their intervention in that country. Multi-nationals already have effective control of those resources by deals with the Gaddafi government. Nor is it about a “humanitarian” motive, as the coalition assaults themselves create enormous damage to civilian populations. The singularity of Libya resides in the failure of the regime to permit military bases on its soil to promote their interest in maintaining full spectrum military dominance in the area.
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ALAN GREENSPAN, DEFROCKED HIGH PRIEST OF THE RELIGION OF SELF-REGULATING FINANCIAL REGULATION, RE-DONS HIS VESTMENTS.
(Counterpunch)
After admitting in 2008 that the financial crash was encouraged by a “flaw” in his model as Federal Reserve chairman that banks could, out of self-interest, be counted on to protect their customers, he now reverts, in a Financial Times op-ed, to the old time religion of free markets. The occasion is a blast against new financial regulations passed by Congress, on the old religion’s premise that the market’s benign operations are so complex that regulators cannot hope to know the effective way to regulate the markets. This is Adam Smith 101 thinking about the market’s “invisible hand”—like that of God, inscrutable but altogether righteous.
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EDUCATOR SAYS DON’T THROW OUT THE BABY OF EDUCATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY WITH THE DIRTY DISHWATER OF TEST CHEATING.
(Time)
Acknowledging the results of a USA Today survey of rampant irregularities in school officials’ handling of results of student performance on standardized tests, Andrew Rotherman argues that this is no reason to abandon the positive features of holding teachers accountable for high levels of student performance. He argues that in fact students perform best on tests not when their mentors “teach to the test” (and sometimes fudge on the results) but when students are given challenging instruction by dedicated and talented teachers. So he seems to say police the cheaters and the test-obsessed teachers rather than abandon the testing system.
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FLORIDA LEGISLATORS: READ THEIR LIPS ABOUT NO NEW TAXES, BUT READ BOTH SIDES OF THEIR MOUTHS.
(Ocala Star-Banner)
Budget passed by the House contains “no new taxes” as such but a wealth of new “fees” that will result in consumers having less disposable income, meaning that in fact they are more heavily taxed. This of course will not be the only injury to the income of average citizens, the cuts in public services and the resulting layoffs of workers will mean that fewer people will actually even have “incomes” to pay these new fees. But those are the “tough decisions” that legislators must make in a time of recession (and don’t touch that political rail of raising a tax.)
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Quote of the day...
The picture emerging today is a sobering one and consumes us. The devastation is a harsh reminder of the vulnerability of our economic and technological might we had worked so hard to create. For example, Japan has poured in millions of dollars to create high speed trains that can shuttle people over hundreds of kilometres with speeds that race time. But this brilliant technology that touts convenience and economic gain cannot guarantee fool-proof safety.
Yoshiaki Kawata, a researcher in disaster management at Kansai University, reflecting in the aftermath of nuclear disaster how Japan is vulnerable to the consequences of its own technological development.
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Fracking is just the latest example of how much the energy industry owns the American government. And we the people let them do it, because of our electricity bill. It could not be more clear that the way out of this disaster is alternative energy. We MUST break our dependence on petro-energy…
The “invisible hand” worked in the days of small individual companies that were force to compete with others their size. In these days of the multi-national giant corporation with influence throughout the political world, IT DOESN’T WORK–PERIOD.