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August 06, 2015
Washington Examiner this week: "Who Can Beat Hillary?"
Right-leaning political journalism magazine Washington Examiner, a DC-based weekly with daily online reporting, is relatively new, having begun life as a newspaper in 2005. I am now reading at least the weekly magazine--it appears free on stands all over the city--regularly and from front to cover. Aside from having longtime conservative standouts like Michael Barone contribute, it refreshingly (a) prizes reason and even-handedness in both reporting and opinion pieces, (b) rarely if ever contains the kind of emotional partisan outbursts my most brilliant Facebook friends across the ideological spectrum indulge in every week on political issues when you pitch a few to them, and (c) refuses to demonize and make unlikely cartoon characters of the opposition. This week's cover article, by Politics Editor Jim Ante, is particularly good and is entitled Who Can Beat Hillary?
Above art/images by Washington Examiner
Posted by JD Hull at 01:38 AM | Comments (0)
Environmental Protection Magazine: Is fracking worth it?
I once wrote a column for this "pro-fossil fuels/industry" publication for environmental professionals based in Texas. Do visit a feature story last week by Julia Troute, a regular Environmental Protection writer and/or contributing editor. In "Let's Be Frank about Fracking: Is Unconventional Gas and Oil Drilling Really Worth It?", Ms. Troute points out that in approximately a decade the number of natural gas wells has nearly doubled in the United States. As of 2014, over 15 million Americans lived within a mile of a well drilled since 2000. That's more people, she continues, than live in Michigan or New York City. And in a recent study:
Dr. Reynold Panettieri Jr. and a team of researchers compared hospital visits in Bradford, Susquehanna, and Wayne—three counties of rural Pennsylvania—from 2007 (when drilling began) to 2011. They found a higher rate of hospital visits in the two counties with a heavy gas presence.
But the medical issues in these counties don’t stem from water contamination alone; each gas well requires an average of 400 tanker trucks to carry water and supplies to and from the site. Panettieri noted that “[with fracking] there's a lot of diesel exhaust, noise and social stress. Hydraulic fracturing changes the complexion of the town because of the number of people coming through...the idling trucks and the noise."
Relying on 95,000 inpatient records, Panettieri and his researchers called their study "the most comprehensive one to date to address the health impact of unconventional gas and oil drilling...In Bradford and Susquehanna, where there was a substantial increase in hydraulic fracturing and active wells, [there] were more cardiovascular hospitalizations as well as more neurologic," Panettieri said. "The association was in proximity to the wells. The closer to active wells, the more Pennsylvanians are getting hospitalized."
Posted by JD Hull at 12:52 AM | Comments (0)
August 05, 2015
And they're off: Trump plus 9.
Washington Post: Fox News announces its final lineup for August 6 debate. Do watch Ohio's John Kasich. On a good night, Kasich can pick off every one of these guys. But even if he does, he will still be just the most beautiful maiden in a leper colony. With all these players, and some even waiting in the wings, this is the least exciting group (granted, purposely meandering Trump is great fun) of GOP hopefuls in my lifetime:
1. Businessman Donald Trump. Five-poll average: 23.4
2. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush: 12
3. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: 10.2
4. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee: 6.6
5. Dr. Ben Carson: 5.8
6. Sen. Ted Cruz: 5.4
7. Sen. Marco Rubio: 5.4
8. Sen. Rand Paul: 4.8
9. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: 3.4
10. Ohio Gov. John Kasich: 3.2
Posted by JD Hull at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)
Coal: Still standing. Barely.
In the Saturday, August 1 Washington Post,"New EPA rule on greenhouse gases the latest blow to King Coal". Excerpts:
When coal was king, it fueled more than half of the nation’s electricity. It fired up American industry and powered an ever-growing variety of household appliances and electronics. And American presidential hopefuls paid homage to coal, courting mine owners and miners whose unionized ranks once numbered more than 400,000.
All of that has changed. On Monday, the Obama administration takes on the coal industry with the final version of rules it has dubbed the Clean Power Plan, a complex scheme designed to reduce, on a state-by-state basis, the amount of greenhouse gases the nation’s electric power sector emits. The main target: coal.
Today, more people in the United States work jobs installing solar panels than work in the coal industry. Ideas for using liquefied coal for cars never materialized. Industrial users have become more efficient. And coal’s share of electricity generation is waning, with natural gas and renewable energy taking its place. Only a handful of coal power plants have been built in recent years, and the Sierra Club keeps a tally of canceled coal-fired power plants like trophies on the wall.
The reason for the focus on coal is that it remains the largest U.S. producer of greenhouse gases at a time when President Obama is striving for an agreement at the December climate summit in Paris. In March, the United States submitted its own goal to the United Nations, vowing to reduce by 2025 U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels. Trimming coal emissions must be a part of that.
"Early Coal Mining, Williams River, West Virginia, 1930s" by Finley Taylor.
Posted by JD Hull at 05:03 PM | Comments (0)