My mother had a saying about certain people: He/she/they could screw a free lunch.”

A while back on a liberal website, there was a discussion about fracking and how the natural gas reserves in Upstate New York and Pennsylvania could make them the New Texas and revitalize their economies. I thought to myself “Wouldn’t that be interesting!” Of course, This website being what it is, they figured it would be a great comeuppance to those (generally red) states that make a killing off of mineral wealth in their vast expanse and voting in a way that these people would prefer they not vote.

Of course, those states also do something. For instance, they don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Even in Louisiana, even after the BP spill, Obama’s decision to kill offshore drilling proved to be remarkably unpopular.

Some people, like, you know, need money and jobs.

Reminds me of a conversation I had several years back with my old college roommate and friend Hubert. I was working on a project that involved making equipment for a controversial drilling project, which he was against. Among the other reasons he was against it was “What about the people of {the state involved}? Shouldn’t they have a say?”

“Well yes, they should. They want this to happen. It’s the people on the other side of the country that don’t.”

“Well, they’re kind of biased, don’t you think?”

Anyway, along those lines, I suppose that this is New York’s decision to make. If they’re really that worried about the environmental repercussions, I guess it hurts them a lot more than it hurts the rest of us.


Category: Statehouse

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7 Responses to Frack, Baby, Frack

  1. David Alexander says:

    I suppose that this is New York’s decision to make. If they’re really that worried about the environmental repercussions

    Given that some of the area that firms would like to drill in serves as the watershed for New York City’s water supply* and any spoiling of the watershed would require billions of dollars to be spent filtration, I will always be against drilling in eastern New York. Mind you, I’m biased as a former New York City resident and I have friends and family members who reside in the city and drink tap water.

    *In theory, NYC’s water is “mountain fresh” spring water. In reality, it’s clean and decent tasting tap water. If it’s dirty, blame yourself or your landlord for not upgrading the pipes.

  2. Escapist says:

    Another part of why TX is successful (more so than its resources – CA is also resource-rich but a basketcase) is its small gov/low tax policy, which NY/Penn would be wise to learn from

  3. trumwill says:

    On the other hand, it wasn’t but a few years ago that everyone looked at Ireland as a model of economic management. It’ll be interesting to see if Texas holds up.

  4. Peter says:

    The online documentary Gasland presents a strong case against fracking. Note: I haven’t seen it myself, so I cannot vouch for its even-handedness, but it has garnered much support from people with all different political backgrounds.

  5. Maria says:

    At least they are thinking along the lines of producing something useful to sell in order to make money, which is a big step for Blue State Swipples. They usually think that making money is too dirty to talk about publicly–although they are quite happy to brag about the cost of their latest status symbol consumer product.

  6. Mike Hunt says:

    HitCoffeeMom: He/she/they could screw a free lunch

    Did she mean that one could screw UP a free lunch?

    My favorite expression in that vein is that someone is such a loser that he could F up a wet dream.

    For those interested in finding out more about fracking, Lesley Stahl did a story on it on 60 Minutes November 14.

  7. trumwill says:

    Yeah, that was what she meant, but she left that word out. She didn’t use the word “screw” in its other context.

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