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You are here: Home / Economics / Free Markets Solve Everything / The Air Up There

The Air Up There

by John Cole|  February 25, 20117:00 pm| 112 Comments

This post is in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Assholes

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Well done, Pennsylvania:

Just a week after repealing a policy requiring an environmental assessment of Marcellus Shale gas well permit proposals in state parks, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has announced it is suspending and reconsidering key air pollution controls governing the drilling industry.

The latest policy changes, detailed in today’s Pennsylvania Bulletin where official state actions are listed, would eliminate a December guideline that regulates emissions from all well operations in a region together, which could result in stricter pollution controls than if the wells are regulated individually.

For those of you keeping track, the new wingnut Governor in PA earlier suspended regulations regarding the dumping of gas drilling wastewater into rivers and streams and has suspended the regulation of air pollutants. I’m sure I’m just being hyperbolic and there is actually a very well known free market solution that is rooted in Hayekian principles to address the regulation of private polluters while the public regulatory arm unilaterally disarms. I’ll have to check with Reason magazine, or maybe Sullivan has found a new Mitch Daniels policy that would address this.

Up next- Governor Corbett informs Pennsylvanians that the DEP and gas companies will personally visit every home in PA and shit on your living room floor, kick your dog, and pour Benzene in your soda.

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Reader Interactions

112Comments

  1. 1.

    Tom Levenson

    February 25, 2011 at 7:04 pm

    Just came back from a trip to UT where I learned of the very depressing views there about peak oil and the future of fossil-fueled energy supplies. This kind of stuff, trying to extract the last BTU from that dinosaur wine, is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

    We’re going to end up shivering in the dark in a wholly toxic environment if we don’t get our asses together, and it sure looks like the Keystoners won’t be leading the way.

  2. 2.

    gnomedad

    February 25, 2011 at 7:07 pm

    Attention, “libertarians”:

    POLLUTION. IS. THEFT.

    That is all.

  3. 3.

    JGabriel

    February 25, 2011 at 7:09 pm

    Ah, yes. That’s the Pennsylvania I grew up in.

    John Cole @ Top:

    Up next — Governor Corbett informs Pennsylvanians that the DEP and gas companies will personally visit every home in PA and shit on your living room floor, kick your dog, and pour Benzene in your soda.

    Or, as they like to call it in PA, a return to the good old days.

    .

  4. 4.

    Dave

    February 25, 2011 at 7:10 pm

    Yup…Republicans and Democrats are EXACTLY ALIKE. Thank you, feckless idiots who stayed home to “teach Obama a lesson”…

  5. 5.

    R-Jud

    February 25, 2011 at 7:13 pm

    With all that benzene floating around, they’ll be calling it the Leukemiastone State soon.

  6. 6.

    pragmatism

    February 25, 2011 at 7:13 pm

    the tragedy of the commons, indeed.

  7. 7.

    Mr Furious

    February 25, 2011 at 7:13 pm

    There’s a host of wingnut policies that I’m willing to say, “fucking suck on it you jackass voters!” but this type of environmental destruction is the exception. The rivers etc that these short term greed-grabs destroy will take untold decades to recover, and will have impacts on everything from fishin to drinking supplies for hundreds if miles around.

  8. 8.

    JGabriel

    February 25, 2011 at 7:17 pm

    John Cole @ Top:

    For those of you keeping track, the new wingnut Governor in PA earlier suspended regulations regarding the dumping of gas drilling wastewater into rivers and streams and has suspended the regulation of air pollutants.

    For anyone who thinks my earlier comment about the good old days in PA was glib and cynical, I’d like to point out that Pennsylvania’s various waterways, especially the Susquehanna, have only begun to recover in the past two decades from the previous more than a century’s worth of acidification and pollution from coalmine wastewater dumping.

    Corbett’s suspension of such regulations will doom a recovery that has barely begun.

    .

  9. 9.

    GregB

    February 25, 2011 at 7:17 pm

    Noted non-interventionist Col. Pat Lang has released a statement.

    Now is the time to intervene in Libya.

  10. 10.

    Davis X. Machina

    February 25, 2011 at 7:18 pm

    Now, let’s not be so negative, and one-sided, and take a balanced look at this.

    You did get to keep your guns, didn’t you?

  11. 11.

    Sko Hayes

    February 25, 2011 at 7:19 pm

    I grew up in Philly and remember driving over the Walt Whitman bridge, and the smell from the river would take your breath away. There were times when the Schuylkill River would be green because of the pollutants.
    We went down to Ocean City, New Jersey, and spent the summers down there, and they used to dump the sewage right into the ocean.
    Corbett is taking PA back to the good old days.
    The only light I can take from this is that another year or two of these Republican governors giving tax breaks to millionaires and tripling health care payments for public workers, while slashing services to the public and slashing corporate taxes at the same time, they’ll be ready, willing and able to vote for Democrats in 2012.

  12. 12.

    Bill Section 147

    February 25, 2011 at 7:27 pm

    Up next- Governor Corbett informs Pennsylvanians that the DEP and gas companies will personally visit every home in PA and shit on your living room floor, kick your dog, and pour Benzene in your soda.

    You should have noted that any complaints about this justifiable and necessary dumping would be interpreted as you trying to invoke Sharia Law.

  13. 13.

    freelancer

    February 25, 2011 at 7:31 pm

    Three Mile Island 2: The Gassening (2012)

  14. 14.

    cmorenc

    February 25, 2011 at 7:32 pm

    The aggressive arrogance of these assholes are only exceeded by their sheer short-sighted stupidity and fuck-you greed. If it was only the kind of stupidity which was harmful to themselves and only the kind of greed that potentially impoverished themselves when they overreached, I could put up with their obnoxiousness. However, they are unfortunately inclined strongly toward precisely toward insistent pursuit of precisely the kinds of arrogant stupidity and greed that leaves enormous, irreparable harm to a wide net of other people in its wake.

  15. 15.

    jl

    February 25, 2011 at 7:36 pm

    Dear Mr. Cole,

    “a very well known free market solution that is rooted in Hayekian principles to address the regulation of private polluters”

    I think the above is wrong. It is the Coase Theorem. If the social value of your water were greater than that to the gas industry, you would have gone out and bargained with them, and coughed up the cash to secure the property rights so you water would not be disturbed.

    You did not.

    Simple.

    Economics is so smart!

    These parasite lesser people are losers who always whine in an attempt to leech of the productive in the US economy.

  16. 16.

    jl

    February 25, 2011 at 7:37 pm

    Please note that my previous comment contained snark.

  17. 17.

    General Stuck

    February 25, 2011 at 7:37 pm

    When the shit backs up into the house, and Aunt Betty delivers a baby with eight legs and compound eyes, Uncle Fester can cling tightly to his guns, or have one for dinner.

  18. 18.

    Turgidson

    February 25, 2011 at 7:41 pm

    For some reason, Cole and Doug’s sarcastic dismantlings of the Village idiots’ “Hayekian Principles ftw!” swooning make me laugh every time. Even when I know it’s coming.

  19. 19.

    slag

    February 25, 2011 at 7:43 pm

    @gnomedad: What makes you think libertarians have anything against theft? As long as it’s theft from the right people, that is.

  20. 20.

    cathyx

    February 25, 2011 at 7:47 pm

    I guess that this explains why Pa. is ranked #5 of the top ten polluters in the country.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/23/top-state-co2-emissions-polluters_n_826753.html#s244389&title=5_Pennsylvania

  21. 21.

    Mnemosyne

    February 25, 2011 at 7:52 pm

    The best part: the goddamned thing actually caught fire yesterday, but apparently that’s no reason not to go full speed ahead with deregulation! Free market FTW!

  22. 22.

    freelancer

    February 25, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    OT – Congrats on your nuptials Mrs. Kate Walsh-Grammer! I see nothing but a bright future for you and Kelsey!

  23. 23.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 25, 2011 at 7:54 pm

    It seems to be a race to the bottom amongst the GOP governors.

  24. 24.

    cathyx

    February 25, 2011 at 7:55 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: We narrowly escaped having a republican governor here in Oregon. A former basketball player with no governing experience.

  25. 25.

    Davis X. Machina

    February 25, 2011 at 7:57 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Hey, do you want to govern, or do you want to win elections? because you can’t do both.

    I believe I have a Mr Coke for you on line two….

  26. 26.

    fucen tarmal

    February 25, 2011 at 7:58 pm

    hey everyone thought we were wusses with “you’ve got a friend in pennsylvania”, and i admit, it is kind of weak…

    wait til we have “pennsylvania is on FIRE” on our license plates, even truckers will get out of our way.

    this can only lead to good things.

  27. 27.

    jl

    February 25, 2011 at 7:58 pm

    @General Stuck:

    In crisis lies opportunity, of which of fittest and ablest among us will take advantage, and make a very nice living (and the parasite losers will whine).

    Young man, I see you have a promising future in our brave new world, and I look forward to reading your household tips for contemporary living column, in the near future.

  28. 28.

    Little Boots

    February 25, 2011 at 8:00 pm

    so many wingnut governors? how did we get here? How do we make it stop?

  29. 29.

    RSR

    February 25, 2011 at 8:01 pm

    It’s so frustrating that the whole industry moved forward under Rendell’s twilight/Dem assembly for a pittance of revenue. No one could’of predicted future GOP administrations would gut environmental oversight.

  30. 30.

    AkaDad

    February 25, 2011 at 8:03 pm

    If you don’t allow drilling companies to pollute, you clearly hate freedom.

  31. 31.

    Little Boots

    February 25, 2011 at 8:03 pm

    okay, now this is a weird and deeply annoying thing about this little burg of Madison. So much is happening right here, so much drama and so much that is really important to our nation. And yet, every night our local progressive radio station, the Mic, 92.1 FM, switches away from Randi Rhodes to some kind of fucking Badger sports. What the fuckety, fuckety fuck?

  32. 32.

    ppcli

    February 25, 2011 at 8:04 pm

    @freelancer: Ahem: that’s “Kayte” Walsh-Grammar, not “Kate”. “Kate” is the way the woman who’s marrying into the British royal family spells her name, but the classy spelling is “Kayte”, as everyone in L.A. knows.

  33. 33.

    Linda Featheringill

    February 25, 2011 at 8:05 pm

    @Tom Levenson:

    Hey! One of our Famous Posters actually mentioned peak oil! Hooray!

    We are actually going to have to deal with this. And depending on the Tooth Fairy to invent something wonderful to take the place of petroleum doesn’t look like a good idea to me.

    So . . . . if you were to talk more about peak oil, it would make a happy old lady. :-)

  34. 34.

    kdaug

    February 25, 2011 at 8:05 pm

    What the fuck is wrong with these parasites?

    Is it an Ozymandias complex? Can they not picture the man cutting down the last tree on Easter Island, to roll out his biggest, greatest stone head?

    This planet has shaken off many parasitic species before, and surely will again. Why do they imagine they’re different?

    I get that they don’t give a fuck if the rest humanity dies off, but do they really think their gated communities will protect them?

  35. 35.

    Little Boots

    February 25, 2011 at 8:07 pm

    @Linda Featheringill:

    We cannot deal with the fact that we are climate changing our planet into oblivion. we cannot deal with the fact that peak oil will dramatically change our way of life. we cannot deal with anything, really. all we can do is spin, and counterspin.

  36. 36.

    RSR

    February 25, 2011 at 8:08 pm

    Woo, all that western PA river dumping will flow down to you John.

    You’re welcome.

    http://www.pserie.psu.edu/seagrant/ais/images/ws_ohiomap.gif

  37. 37.

    freelancer

    February 25, 2011 at 8:08 pm

    @ppcli:

    I know, I realized too late and didn’t get to edit. (It works now if you open up Edit in a new tab, weirdly.)

  38. 38.

    Mark S.

    February 25, 2011 at 8:08 pm

    Doing a five second google search on libertarian + pollution turned up this:

    The remedy against air pollution is therefore crystal clear, and it has nothing to do with multibillion-dollar palliative government programs at the expense of the taxpayers which do not even meet the real issue. The remedy is simply for the courts to return to their function of defending person and property rights against invasion, and therefore to enjoin anyone from injecting pollutants into the air.

    There you go. Wait, who has property rights on the air? Rivers and streams?

    To conclude, “The greens and leftists have NO solutions to the problems of pollution. Libertarians, on the other hand, do.” Game, set and match.

  39. 39.

    Little Boots

    February 25, 2011 at 8:11 pm

    @Mark S.:

    that has the enormous advantage of telling everyone that nobody has to do shit. that is a winner, politically.

  40. 40.

    jl

    February 25, 2011 at 8:11 pm

    @kdaug:

    “I get that they don’t give a fuck if the rest humanity dies off, but do they really think their gated communities will protect them?”

    Yes, they do.

    Or they are in denial. The Teabaggers in my family have gone beyond agnatology an into an alternative reality where everything they want is just there for the plucking were it not for the Damn Democrats.

    For example, I have an uncle and aunt who have bought the Palinverse hook line and sinker. In their world, the ground beneath our feet in the US is a mere thin crust floating on an endless sea of oil, if only the Damn Democrats would get out of the way.

    I’ve given up arguing with them on some things and just let it be. They are, strangely enough, on the right side in terms of voting integrity (ain’t need them fancy voting machines, why not just make everybody show up and writ it down on paper?) and racism among the reactionaries, so I encourage them along those lines.

  41. 41.

    ppcli

    February 25, 2011 at 8:11 pm

    @freelancer: Edit in a new tab, eh? Thanks for the tip.

    Edit: Hey! It works. This is sort of like that moment in 2001: A Space Odyssey when the ape finds the tool in front of the monolith. Life will never be the same.

  42. 42.

    cathyx

    February 25, 2011 at 8:11 pm

    Here is the republican thinking on this pollution thing in a nutshell.
    I’ll be dead before it affects me and my life, and I want cheap energy because it’s my money and I don’t want to pay more for regulations. With regards to my grandchildren, I can die with peace of mind because there isn’t enough pollution to affect their life, pollution doesn’t hurt people. Rush Limbaugh said so.

  43. 43.

    Little Boots

    February 25, 2011 at 8:12 pm

    This is one of those cases where, sadly, democracy does not work. Most people want to be told that everything is basically fine and nobody has to do anything. that side has a huge advantage, politically. I wish I knew an answer to that.

  44. 44.

    jl

    February 25, 2011 at 8:13 pm

    edit broken and typed too fast. Sorry. Hope folks can figure out previous comment.

  45. 45.

    General Stuck

    February 25, 2011 at 8:13 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Hell, growing up in coal country, until leaving, I never knew that a bath full of water wasn’t naturally blood red from the acid water bringing the oodles of iron out of solution. Nor having the house shake from a gazillion pounds of ANFO detonated on a hill the next hollow over, not to mention dodging flash floods from sediment ponds breaching. A little vapor fire is nothing to get hung about.

  46. 46.

    Linda Featheringill

    February 25, 2011 at 8:16 pm

    @Little Boots:

    we cannot deal with anything, really. all we can do is spin, and counterspin.

    Ship of Fools.

  47. 47.

    jl

    February 25, 2011 at 8:17 pm

    @freelancer: Yes, thanks for the tip. It works on ‘open in new window’ mode too.

  48. 48.

    Little Boots

    February 25, 2011 at 8:18 pm

    @Linda Featheringill:

    It does seem that way. I’m in a pissy mood, in case that isn’t apparent, and the truth is I feel pretty confident that we will win in Madison, but when I think about what we’re doing here, how we got to this point, it really, truly pisses me off. The absolutely slavish devotion to the interests of the rich in this country is so pathetic. We will literally kill ourselves rather than inconvenience some millionaire. It is ridiculous.

  49. 49.

    thomas Levenson

    February 25, 2011 at 8:19 pm

    @Linda Featheringill: Working on it. Add it to the list of something I know little enough about to know how little I know, and hence how likely I am to make a fool of myself, and hence how slowly I have to post on it…

  50. 50.

    Mark S.

    February 25, 2011 at 8:19 pm

    @General Stuck:

    Ingrate. Those benevolent coal companies were making sure you got your iron. You want anemia?

  51. 51.

    Dennis SGMM

    February 25, 2011 at 8:19 pm

    It isn’t as if the handwriting wasn’t on the wall decades ago. The oil embargo back in nineteen-fucking-seventy-three showed us exactly what happens when the spigot is turned off. Instead of launching a Manhattan Project level of of R&D to enable energy independence both political parties sold out and allowed Big Oil to fuck up every last thing that stands between them and anything that will burn. This is nothing less than a catastrophic failure of government.

  52. 52.

    Little Boots

    February 25, 2011 at 8:20 pm

    @Dennis SGMM:

    but, but, Carter looked funny in that sweater. Yeah, let’s vote for the dunce in the suit. That’ll show em. whoever em is.

  53. 53.

    SensesFail

    February 25, 2011 at 8:20 pm

    @Dave:

    Yup…Republicans and Democrats are EXACTLY ALIKE. Thank you, feckless idiots who stayed home to “teach Obama a lesson”…

    This.

  54. 54.

    MikeJ

    February 25, 2011 at 8:21 pm

    @Mark S.:

    The remedy is simply for the courts to return to their function of defending person and property rights against invasion, and therefore to enjoin anyone from injecting pollutants into the air.

    Now google libertarian + tort reform.

  55. 55.

    jenn

    February 25, 2011 at 8:23 pm

    This is just insane. How are they getting around the federal Clean Water Act? Not that long ago, I don’t think they’d have been able to do this. But then again, I seem to recall a court case taken to the Supreme Court about the Clean Water Act a couple of years ago, that dramatically changed the waterways that qualified – with Swing Vote Kennedy making some sort of weird contortion that didn’t end up gutting it as far as the other Republican Supremes wanted, but made it more difficult to make the call in the field about which waterways were subject to CWA and which weren’t, but I thought that was more an issue for wetlands than streams and rivers.

  56. 56.

    Triassic Sands

    February 25, 2011 at 8:24 pm

    Apparently, the majority of people in PA, OH, IN, and WI, to name but a few states, are eager to breathe polluted air. That’s how they voted.

    @Dennis SGMM:

    This is nothing less than a catastrophic failure of government.

    It is that, but it is something more. It’s a catastrophic failure of the people. And our system.

  57. 57.

    Little Boots

    February 25, 2011 at 8:25 pm

    @Triassic Sands:

    and that truly worries me.

  58. 58.

    khead

    February 25, 2011 at 8:30 pm

    It’s not just PA.

    WV is open for fracking.

  59. 59.

    Violet

    February 25, 2011 at 8:30 pm

    From Eric Kleefeld’s Twitter feed:

    NEWS: Capitol Police announce building will CLOSE 4 p.m. Sunday – they’re easing this process down.

    They’re moving the Madison protesters out of the capital building.

  60. 60.

    Dennis SGMM

    February 25, 2011 at 8:43 pm

    @Triassic Sands:
    You want stupid? California, suffocating under a mountain of debt doesn’t charge the oil companies so much as a nickle in extraction fees. Our state Assembly has an ironclad two-thirds majority requirement to pass nearly anything and so we languish. That the US Senate now seems to operate in the same way does not bode well for our future.

  61. 61.

    frosty

    February 25, 2011 at 8:45 pm

    @thomas Levenson: Well, Peak Oil is basically pretty simple. First principle: you can’t have infinite growth in a world with finite resources.

    Next thing to ask yourself (a tag line from an Oil Drum commenter) Are humans smarter than yeast?

    Beer: Yeast eat up every bit of sugar in the wort, then die when there’s no more food left.
    Wine: Yeast eat and eat and eat the sugar, then die in their waste products (alcohol) when the concentration gets too high.

    Fun thoughts on a Friday night. Think I’ll go get a drink.

  62. 62.

    gnomedad

    February 25, 2011 at 8:47 pm

    @Mark S.:

    “The greens and leftists have NO solutions to the problems of pollution. Libertarians, on the other hand, do.”

    Went to the site — holy shit, he’s not snarking!

  63. 63.

    RSR

    February 25, 2011 at 8:47 pm

    Hasn’t “We’re on fire” been Centralia’s motto for a few decades now?

  64. 64.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    February 25, 2011 at 8:50 pm

    @GregB: Can’t we at least wait for the Libyan Curveball?

  65. 65.

    Little Boots

    February 25, 2011 at 8:51 pm

    @gnomedad:

    I have the terrible feeling he’ll be head of EPA in a couple of years. That’s what we the people want to hear.

  66. 66.

    BR

    February 25, 2011 at 8:54 pm

    @Tom Levenson:

    Just came back from a trip to UT where I learned of the very depressing views there about peak oil and the future of fossil-fueled energy supplies. This kind of stuff, trying to extract the last BTU from that dinosaur wine, is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

    This is something I feel like needs to be discussed daily. It’s so much more important than all the other shit in our daily discourse, be it on blogs like this or elsewhere. But yet most folks are unaware or otherwise don’t like to talk about it because it’s too negative.

  67. 67.

    gnomedad

    February 25, 2011 at 8:55 pm

    The internet will make libertarian solutions to pollution feasible. When a polluting vehicle drives past you, your cell phone will automatically initiate a micro-lawsuit against the driver. Judgment will be rendered by a Halliburton judicial expert system, and the frivolous lawsuit fine will be automatically deducted from your paycheck.

  68. 68.

    MikeJ

    February 25, 2011 at 8:55 pm

    @gnomedad: Suing people for polluting hasn’t worked well historically. It took over twenty years for Exxon Valdez to go through the courts, and many people were severed from the class action because they were dead by the time it was over.

  69. 69.

    S. cerevisiae

    February 25, 2011 at 8:58 pm

    @frosty: I guess we’ll all find out.

  70. 70.

    MikeJ

    February 25, 2011 at 9:01 pm

    @S. cerevisiae: Eponysterical.

  71. 71.

    opie jeanne, formerly known as Jeanne Ringland

    February 25, 2011 at 9:02 pm

    @jl: Sort of along the lines of a relative who commented about global warming that he’d just turn up his AC.

  72. 72.

    Little Boots

    February 25, 2011 at 9:12 pm

    @opie jeanne, formerly known as Jeanne Ringland: well, at least he has a plan. unlike the rest of this country.

  73. 73.

    trollhattan

    February 25, 2011 at 9:12 pm

    I worked nearly fifteen years in environmental engineering cleanup projects and can’t adequately describe how vastly more expensive it is to remove contaminants from groundwater than preventing the contamination to begin with. What’s occurring in Pennsylvania (and New York and Colorado and Wyoming and…) is indefensible.

    And these bastards do. Not. Care.

  74. 74.

    jwb

    February 25, 2011 at 9:12 pm

    @Little Boots: Yes, sports, they will be the death of us. It’s what feeds the tube and keeps people from simply turn off the cable they would otherwise care less about.

  75. 75.

    trollhattan

    February 25, 2011 at 9:16 pm

    @Dennis SGMM:

    Prop 26 last November screwed us bigtime. 2/3 vote now required to levy new fees.

    Sigh

  76. 76.

    jl

    February 25, 2011 at 9:17 pm

    @opie jeanne, formerly known as Jeanne Ringland:

    The really irritating thing about some of my family’s teabaggers is their politicization of everything. One particular strident liberal in my family used to have that title, but they have been left far back in the teabaggers’ dust.

    Samples:
    me, during recent warm spell here : Nice day for February. Warm. Good day for a hike.

    teabagger relative: Awwwwwww, thaaaaat damn global warming is a bunch of buuuullllssshhhhiiiiiiiit these Democrats peddle.

    me, on a trip: Funny, the trees look healthier on this side of the mountains. Anybody else think so? Wonder if it’s pollution or maybe a different kind of tree.

    teabagger relative: Awwwwwww, thaaaaat damn global warming is a bunch of buuuullllssshhhhiiiiiiiit these Democrats peddle.

    You can’t even talk about the damn weather anymore, unusual or not.

  77. 77.

    kdaug

    February 25, 2011 at 9:18 pm

    @Dennis SGMM:

    Instead of launching a Manhattan Project level of of R&D to enable energy independence both political parties sold out and allowed Big Oil to fuck up every last thing that stands between them and anything that will burn

    Don’t forget the press conference to publicly display the pulling of the solar panels off the roof of the White House.

    I believe that’s called a “tell”.

  78. 78.

    Wilson Heath

    February 25, 2011 at 9:18 pm

    In post-Soviet Russia, air breathes you!

  79. 79.

    Little Boots

    February 25, 2011 at 9:18 pm

    @jwb:
    The Packers are unionized. there’s that.

  80. 80.

    Jennifer

    February 25, 2011 at 9:18 pm

    Well, it could be worse.

    They could shit in your soda, kick the living room floor and pour Benzene in your dog.

  81. 81.

    Mr. Blink

    February 25, 2011 at 9:19 pm

    @jl: I have no idea if you are being sarcastic, or just stupid. Big companies with lots of money buys property rights, because they end up making a profit from / because of the land they purchased. They have deep pockets, can afford it, and may end up getting a return later. (Even though they may end up fucking up the environment around them. But who cares, right? It’s all about profit.)

    So what you are proposing is one of us dirty hippies buy up all the land, so the fuck-tards can’t use it, but really not hope to get any payment back in return? It doesn’t work that way. The greedy assholes will win every time. Our only hope is regulation and severe penalties. That’s what I want my god damn tax money going to, which is why I vote non-republican.

  82. 82.

    Nellcote

    February 25, 2011 at 9:21 pm

    from the article cited:

    Last year, Chesapeake had among the most violations of Marcellus shale companies in Pennsylvania, according to DEP. The company was cited with 149 violations and 33 enforcements, resulting in total fines of less than $12,000.

    also.too.

  83. 83.

    maya

    February 25, 2011 at 9:22 pm

    @Linda Featheringill:
    Kinda reminds me of that old Marty Robbin’s tune;
    They still talk about the stranger with,
    The peak oil on his lips….

  84. 84.

    jwb

    February 25, 2011 at 9:23 pm

    @Little Boots: Oh, it’s not the sports per se. It’s that sports are what pay the bills for the media and convince people to keep the cable—and it’s cable (well, TV actually) that’s the killer. Bread and circuses and all that.

  85. 85.

    Triassic Sands

    February 25, 2011 at 9:24 pm

    @Little Boots:

    Ah, Little Boots, I fear you should be worried. The signs are not good. In 2012, the GOP is almost certain to take control of the Senate. Assuming Obama is able to hold on to the White House, we’ll see then if the president can spell “veto.” I imagine he will be faced with an avalanche of the most vile, wrongheaded, and shortsighted legislation any president has ever had to consider.

  86. 86.

    Triassic Sands

    February 25, 2011 at 9:28 pm

    @Dennis SGMM:

    Dennis, you side-windin’ polecat, I live in Washington State and as when I lived in Colorado, despite all the obvious evidence that California has ruined itself, Washingtonians are now busy imitating Californians. We, and by “we” I mean not me, passed a 2/3 requirement to raise any tax or fee. Our governor threw in the towel and announced an ALL CUTS budget, so the war on the poor goes on.

  87. 87.

    Nellcote

    February 25, 2011 at 9:29 pm

    @jwb:

    It’s what feeds the tube and keeps people from simply turn off the cable they would otherwise care less about

    If it’s any help the NFL bosses are threatening a lockout.

  88. 88.

    Little Boots

    February 25, 2011 at 9:30 pm

    @Triassic Sands: that sounds about right. and while the fact that John Boener is going to have to stand up there and say some of the stupidest things ever heard in national politics, without believing a word of it, is kind of entertaining, it does not make up for the rancid shit that is going to flow from the capital.

  89. 89.

    Mr. Blink

    February 25, 2011 at 9:32 pm

    OK JL, I read a couple of your other posts, and I think you were actually being sarcastic. My bad. Too late to edit my post…

  90. 90.

    jwb

    February 25, 2011 at 9:33 pm

    @Nellcote: The lockout will certainly hurt Fox, which is not a bad thing, but it’s more than just professional football. It’s the whole sports entertainment complex—and college sports is as big a part of that as the professional sports.

  91. 91.

    Linda Featheringill

    February 25, 2011 at 9:36 pm

    @BR:

    It looks like peak oil got a response from several people. Could be some interest in it.

  92. 92.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    February 25, 2011 at 9:38 pm

    @Little Boots: But…But…Jesus will come back and create us a new heaven and a new Earth….It says here in the King James Bible. So it is Ok for us to trash this old one. ;-)

  93. 93.

    RSR

    February 25, 2011 at 9:49 pm

    hey, timely:

    Natural Gas Industry Tried To Get Documentary “Gasland” Disqualified From Oscars

    http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/02/25/industry-tried-to-get-documentary-gasland-disqualified-from-oscars/

    ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) – The natural gas industry has spent months attacking the documentary “Gasland” as a deeply flawed piece of propaganda. After it was nominated for an Oscar, an industry-sponsored PR group asked the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to reconsider the film’s eligibility.

  94. 94.

    Little Boots

    February 25, 2011 at 10:08 pm

    @Mr Stagger Lee:

    and make everybody be high. or is that Bob Marley? I’m always getting those two mixed up.

  95. 95.

    Little Boots

    February 25, 2011 at 10:16 pm

    sheets. is that a thing? am I mixing up web sites?

  96. 96.

    Dennis SGMM

    February 25, 2011 at 10:16 pm

    @Triassic Sands:
    LOL! Thanks for the appellation. I haven’t been so honorably appelated in years.

  97. 97.

    Scamp Dog

    February 25, 2011 at 10:19 pm

    @Mr. Blink: Given that the snark often isn’t that different from actual libertarian rhetoric, it’s hard to tell sometimes.

  98. 98.

    Triassic Sands

    February 25, 2011 at 10:19 pm

    @Little Boots:

    Nothing puzzles me more than how much of what he says a guy like Boehner actually believes. On the one hand, believing the nonsense he spews requires a person be monumentally stupid. Admittedly, ideology, like religion, can make a person really dumb, but it’s not automatic, and cause and effect are uncertain. Does believing fundamental religion make one stupid or does one simply have to be stupid to believe it?

    On the other hand, the degree of cynicism and dishonesty necessary for a person to act as Boehner does, if he doesn’t believe what he’s saying (and doing), is mind-boggling. If Boehner is just pretending, I would expect him to slip up more often, i.e., inadvertently reveal that he doesn’t believe what he’s saying.

    Stupid or dishonest? Or is it both? Pushed to choose, I think I’d opt for both.

  99. 99.

    Triassic Sands

    February 25, 2011 at 10:20 pm

    @Dennis SGMM:

    You’re quite welcome, I’m sure.

  100. 100.

    Little Boots

    February 25, 2011 at 10:23 pm

    @Triassic Sands:

    I think Boehner is really, truly indifferent to all this crap. I think he just wants to get to the bar at five. Of all the speakers I’ve seen in the past 20 years, I think he’s the most perfectly cynical. he is just so bored by the ideologues, it seems, but he depends on them and he’ll let them steer him any way they want.

  101. 101.

    Mark S.

    February 25, 2011 at 10:55 pm

    @Little Boots:

    And if there’s one thing Boehner knows, it’s always five o’clock somewhere.

  102. 102.

    jl

    February 25, 2011 at 10:57 pm

    @Mr. Blink: Should have put a snark tag on the Coase Theorem post. I was making fun of how the eactionaries apply economic theory.

  103. 103.

    jomo

    February 25, 2011 at 10:57 pm

    The stakes are horrifically high. Between NY and PA we are talking about virtually the entire water supply for the tri-state area: a metropolis of 16 million people.

  104. 104.

    Cain

    February 25, 2011 at 11:37 pm

    @cathyx:

    @schrodinger’s cat: We narrowly escaped having a republican governor here in Oregon. A former basketball player with no governing experience.

    We’ve been getting squeakers every election. Luckily for us, Multinomah County saves our bacon every time.

    cain

  105. 105.

    Montysano

    February 26, 2011 at 12:04 am

    @Little Boots:

    The absolutely slavish devotion to the interests of the rich in this country is so pathetic. We will literally kill ourselves rather than inconvenience some millionaire. It is ridiculous.

    Perfect.

  106. 106.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    February 26, 2011 at 1:05 am

    @freelancer:

    OT – Congrats on your nuptials Mrs. Kate Walsh-Grammer! I see nothing but a bright future for you and Kelsey! Together forever? No, but a bright future nonetheless!

    Fix’t! :)

    A friend my wife went to school with is a full metal religious winger who believes that we can do whatever we want to the earth because gawd gave it to us to use as we see fit. That and by the time we fuck it up royally Jeebus will come and save her and her cults asses while making everyone remaining behind regret that the Big Sky Daddy ever made us by waging war then leaving everyone to suffer in hell for eternity.

    It truly warms her heart to know this truth. Truly.

    But she’s a loving, compassionate person. Really. Just ask her and she will tell you that. I add “fucking batshit crazy” to that so it describes her a bit better.

  107. 107.

    Jebediah

    February 26, 2011 at 2:32 am

    @frosty:
    Maybe that is all we are – some aliens are watching us and wishing we would hurry up and finish fermenting already so they can drink the tasty, tasty earth ale.
    Shit, I hope we are at least a top-shelf brew. Naw, we’re prolly tapswill.

  108. 108.

    Pat

    February 26, 2011 at 4:40 am

    Elections have consequences, motherfuckers! and this country will never wake the fuck up!

  109. 109.

    dan

    February 26, 2011 at 9:03 am

    We need cheap fuel, and I don’t live in Pennsylvania, so drill baby drill.

  110. 110.

    themann1086

    February 26, 2011 at 11:11 am

    I tried to get… uh…. that guy…. Dan Ono-something… elected. Sadly he was a terrible campaigner and a stupid democrat… I voted for Hoeffel in the primaries.

  111. 111.

    jayjaybear

    February 26, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    @themann1086: Ditto on voting for Onorato. I shudder to think about state employee contract negotiations this year. We’ll probably be lucky if we’re not paying the state to let us work…

  112. 112.

    terry

    February 26, 2011 at 10:14 pm

    yeah, don’t blame me. i voted for onorato. even though he really is a douche, too.

    (on behalf of sane Pennsylvania, I’m sorry.)

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