Apr 22, 2011

Pennsylvania as Pig

A report yesterday in The Morning Call said thousands of gallons of drilling fluid used in hydraulic fracturing were spilling into the Towanda Creek. A disaster team was brought to the site from Texas. At the time of publication on wednesday, in The Times-Tribune (Scranton), the well blowout was continuing for over twelve hours. How many actual gallons of the carcinogenic witch brew actually contaminated the land and waterway will probably never be known. The well is operated by Chesapeake Energy Corp., which is one of the biggest and best equipped operators in fracking. The report said nobody was injured. That referred to immediate injury from the blowout. How many will suffer ill effects from contaminated water will be determined by future doctors, now still in elementary school. Gotta love Pennsylvania. We are the state with one of the biggest state houses. Our legislators have the largest staffs. Our governors, term after term, Democrat or Republican, appoint their minions to turnpike, bridge and other no-show commissions. I remember when in the late 70's, the lottery was the solution to keeping Pennsylvania's pig trough financed. Now we have added casino's and sacrificed our environment with hydraulic fracking. Reform is a barge, which floats by on Pennsylvania's contaminated river called Denial, every four years.

19 comments:

  1. Allentown taxpayerApril 22, 2011 at 5:31 AM

    When the easy pickings for upstate natural gas drilling are depleted, the fracturing will move south to the Lehigh Valley. Then I suspect the "drill, baby, drill" crowd will become the NIMBY crowd.

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  2. ....and we don't even tax the big energy companies that make millions off of fracking

    .......and we are laying off teachers because the state has no money to fund education

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  3. MM.
    Please keep us informed about Hamilton Street businesses and the arena.

    Permission to Post:
    MM wrote a day ago.
    "UPDATE: Matt Assad's article in today's paper pretty much tells the story of the meeting, but softens the tone present. Assad must maintain some working relationship with Hailstone, I do not."

    Yesterday's Call included a snippet on Wednesday night's council meeting at which council members admitted they did not do their research prior to approving a
    Liquor license transfer to a businessman who let's say stretched the truth to include he had a signed lease when in fact he did not.

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  4. anon 6:50, that liquor license request came through the mayor's office. they should have done the due diligence, instead, they let city council take the blame. save but for chris baxter's morning call article, the approval would still stand.

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  5. Sen. Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, on Thursday defended the use of fracking as a way to boost U.S. energy supplies, and said the technique has not resulted in any documented cases of groundwater contamination in his home state, where it has been used since 1948.

    The Pennsylvania spill "has nothing to do with hydraulic fracturing," Inhofe said in an interview with Fox News Radio, noting the spill was above ground."
    Courtesy: Morning Call

    And, just how does he know this?

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  6. anon 7:05, that article is absurd. the accident has everything to do with fracking, since the process requires millions of gallons of chemical laced water injected to fracture the shale. secondly, well water has already been contaminated in pennsylvania from other drilling sites.

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  7. Blogger michael molovinsky said...

    anon 6:50, that liquor license request came through the mayor's office. they should have done the due diligence, instead, they let city council take the blame. save but for chris baxter's morning call article, the approval would still stand.

    April 22, 2011 7:01 AM

    MM.
    Point well taken.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Business is Business.
    "Anytime we can recruit a business from outside the state is a good thing, and it's a double hit when it's an iconic company," said Tony Iannelli, president and CEO of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce and a Phillies fan."

    Guess we can't cry foul when another state "recruits" one of our iconic landmarks.

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  9. anon 8:58, we didn't recruit this business. they already owned the former cherrydale plant in magunie. . about half of their workers are relocating here from the bronx. they didn't wish to upgrade their bronx plant to current food safety standards.

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  10. Plenty of money for Cedar Beach playgrounds and Pawlowski Palaces of Sport hockey arenas.

    Perhaps teachers need some different Union Representation...

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  11. What's up with the GREEN JOBS hokus pokus stuff, anyway?

    I thought we were already saved...

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  12. MM
    You mean this peanut company actually purchased the Cherrydale plant prior to this new NYC health care mandate and are now using tha as an excuse to relocate?

    anon 8:58, we didn't recruit this business. they already owned the former cherrydale plant in magunie.

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  13. Permission to Post:
    Is this for real? A day after ASD recent hiring tactics revealed on this very blog, today's paper has this!

    Morning Call:
    "Allentown School District is reviewing $13 million in cost savings measures, including a host of suggestions by community task forces, to reduce a projected $30 million deficit in the 2011-12 school year.

    District officials are looking at ways to trim spending next school year and heard recommendations from the public committees that convened earlier this year to review various areas for potential savings.

    "I think we have a lot of good recommendations that will really get strong consideration," district chief financial officer Trevor Jackson said.

    Superintendent Gerald Zahorchak received board approval in November to set up seven budget task force committees to find at least 3 percent in savings without eliminating teachers."

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  14. SEVEN task force committees, you say?

    Excellent.

    Now, what about blue-ribbon panels, how many of those?

    (gotta have them blue-ribbon panels --- Obama gets a lot of mileage out of 'em all the time)

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  15. Why not just CONFISCATE THE ASSETS of the "Big Energy Companies"?

    Throw the Executives in jail.

    Shoot the Executives' pets.

    Then redistribute the Wealth to the poor.

    THIS is the only path to genuine Fairness and Justice.

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  16. anon 12:57, they operate another division out of macungie called barton candy.

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  17. anon 1:06, i'm not interested in discussing the different committee recommendations point by point. my general view is that administrations create committees so that the public has the allusion of participation, and feels part of the decisions, which of course are made by the administration anyway.

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  18. Mr. Molovinsky,
    Today's paper states the gas drilling company you mention is closing down all operations in our state for the time being. One can only imagine the amount of chemical pollutants now in the Bradford County waterways and the resulting damage to the environment.

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  19. Anon April 22, 2011 1:23 PM
    Let us start with taking your money first then the money of your employer. When you find yourself destitute, remember how good it was when you had a job provided by your "greedy" company. If this isn't the case, then you must be a government employee feeding off the tax payer. The government legislates honesty by taxing. I don't see that as an answer to anything! Greed is greed, no matter who does it, however, there is a difference: Companies are held accountable by the people through competition in the free market and the government has no competition, therefore no accountability. Move to a Communist country and leave our free society to those of us that love America.

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