The video is good, and presents a counter to Gas Nation, which comes across as a media/leftist propaganda piece on fracking. Fracking is a modern miracle that has lowered natural gas prices so much that companies investing in gas production can't meet their loans and there's evidence that natural gas is too cheap to drill for. They based loans on producing gas they could sell at $10 or more per thousand cubic feet, but the gas being produced has driven the price down under $5. That said, the video doesn't address every common objection, just the most common ones - poisoned water, cancer clusters, and poisonous air in the region. In my opinion, they spend a bit too much time pursuing the creator of Gas Nation to show that he doesn't want honest debate, but I couldn't tell you how many minutes of air time they spent and whether or not they could have developed another subject in that time.
I will leave the subject with one connection I hadn't made; maybe you haven't either. One of the biggest opponents of fracking in the US and the EU is... (wait for it)... Vladimir Putin and Gazprom, the Russian gas producer. As the West restricts fracking, more countries turn to Gazprom and into Putin's grip. Gazprom makes more money, because since gas is as fungible as oil, a smaller global supply raises prices on every cubic foot. Plus, Putin gets power over Europe. They've already cut gas supplies to the Ukraine, in the midst of the winter of '09. France outlawed fracking, so that they can put themselves in the same situation. That makes the producers of Gas Nation and the Hollywood types that protest, Russian agents - in purpose if not on payroll.
Seems Borepatch and I are going through a similar passage, although the details are quite different.
Personally, I had an issue about a month ago, too, a day or two after my birthday post. It led to me wearing a Holter monitor overnight, and will soon lead to what they're calling a nuclear stress test. I've done some reading, and as far as I can tell, they leave me alone in a room handcuffed to a nuclear bomb that has one of those movie-style, LED clocks counting down, and if I don't disarm the bomb before it counts down to 00:00, the bomb takes out the city. During that time, they monitor my heart to make sure I'm handling the stress well. Or something like that.
I had a nuclear stress test last year. No biggie. They inject a nuclear reactive fluid, then make you exercise (or, in my case, they used a drug to stimulate my heart, because with my nerve-damaged leg I can't use a treadmill). They then wait a bit, put you under a scanner, and image the radiation coming out of you rather than put radiation into you as with a traditional X-ray.
ReplyDeleteI was warned that if I intended to travel to New York City or anywhere else that anti-terrorism radiation monitors were in common use, I'd need to carry a letter to the effect that I'd been injected with this stuff, as I'd be giving off the same signature as nuclear materials. I thought it might be fun to be considered weapons-grade . . .
;-)
Wait ... you mean I don't get handcuffed to a bomb and have only ten minutes to cut the red (or is it the blue?) wire?
ReplyDeleteDang!
;-)
RE: the stress test. Depending on what problems you're experiencing the stress test may not produce ideal results. I was experiencing chest pain on exertion a few years back, and the passed both the echo-cardiogram and the nuclear/treadmill stress test with flying colors. When the cardiologist ran out of other tests to try the only thing left was catheteritization and dye injection, which discovered a partial blockage. The fix was a stent. IIRC, there's now at least one 64-slice MRI about 40 miles west of you; nobody had one 7 years ago, but rumor is they're nearly as good as the catheter/dye drill.
ReplyDeleteWait a minute! You mean to tell me that the left in our country has the same agenda for the U.S. that Russia does??? Who could have seen that coming?
ReplyDelete