My native Vermont recently became the first U.S. state to ban fracking! (That's short for hydraulic fracturing: an increasingly common but dangerous natural gas extraction process that poisons water supplies and has been known to cause artificial earthquakes.) Although the LOCAL practical impact will be essentially nothing since Vermont had no such projects going as things were, the broader impact on the national debate could be big. Michigan officials have already called up our governor requesting advice on how to pass such a ban in their state as well, for instance. Promotion of natural gas extraction constitutes the bulk of President Obama's current "all of the above" energy policy, which values energy independence over the protection of the natural environment. Vermont governor Peter Shumlin, by contrast, argues that it's not worth risking water supplies to get more natural gas: "In the coming generation or two, drinking water will be more valuable than oil or natural gas."
Commie green environmentalist extremists prevent us from accessing our own resources, so we need to keep importing those resources at prices that will prevent any kind of economic recovery. Well done, you guys.
Vermont is full of ignorant elitist leftists who have no grasp of reality. EPA Determines Fracking is Safe This is all left wing symbolism over substance. Meanwhile, it was determined we have reserves of 3 TRILLION with half of that currently available with our current techniques from Colorado to Montana. We need NO foreign oil/gas.
Fascist fatass wasteful idiots ruining people's lives and the environment because they live unsustainable, exploitative and immature lifestyles that will ruin the world for future generations as well as increase the strain on the worlds most expensive health care system. Come on you guys. See what i did there... Oh an that's very good news to see Vermont take a stand against this. It's nice to see some politicians care about their constituents.
We are the cleanest, most environmentally conscious developed country in the world. Left-wing extremists want to destroy our economy, destroy our manufacturing and energy companies, drive the price of oil/gas to levels that nobody can afford, all in the name of their sacred cow, "the environment". The environment has become the Marxist blank check that they can write any time they want to stymie the economy. I hope you enjoy your clean air when you don't have a job and have to pay $20 a gallon for gasoline.
Please show me a developed country with our population size that pays as much attention to the environment as we do. Show me a country who has an equivalent of the EPA that is as strict as ours.
Didn't Vermont NIMBYs manage to also prohibit ridgetop wind turbines. NIMBYs are NIMBYs and deserve no respect. BTW leffe: Who's cleaner?
The claim is your's to prove. I've read the reports on US river poluition, your most popular "car" gets about 12mpg, you whinge about incandescent bulbs.... You are not "the cleanest, most environmentally conscious developed country in the world.". You are far far from it. And your population has nothing to do with it, that's why we meansure things per head of population.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/env_pol_car_dio_per_cap-pollution-carbon-dioxide-per-capita http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/env_pol_mun_was_per_cap-pollution-municipal-waste-per-capita http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/env_co2_emi-environment-co2-emissions http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/env_thr_spe-environment-threatened-species http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/31/world-carbon-dioxide-emissions-country-data-co2 If you look at per capita emissions: The US is still number one in terms of per capita emissions among the big economies - with 18 tonnes emitted per person Table id Rank, 2009 Country or region 2008, mil tonnes 2009, TOTAL, mil tonnes 2009, per capita, tonnes 5 % change, 2008 to 2009 United States 5,833.13 5,424.53 17.67 -7 Europe 4,628.98 4,310.30 7.14 -6.9
We both know you just pulled that out of your ass. Yeah that be nice if it was so easy to break a system so dependent on explotation, manipulation and division. Well many have become bloated, unsustainable and unreliable dependent on a government in debt. They can adjust accordingly or die a long drawn out death. And think nobody will be able to afford it when there's little left but the governments will be in greater debt, people will be in worse health and the environment will be ruined for many more people. It's absolutely immature to go on without using some forethought of how your actions will affect the next generation or being apathetic about it for continuing a pathetically wasteful lifestyle before the survival and happiness of many others. You're talking to the wrong person about that I don't drive or plan to. I live in a relatively small city the longest it takes me to go anywhere I want by bike is 2 hours. Occasionally i car pool with friends or family to go out of city and we split the money on gas. People will just drive less and look for jobs in alternative fields you make it sound like the cost for clean air is the end of the world when really your alternative is much worse.
Apples and oranges. Europe doesn't have our manufacturing and overall economy. Nor does it have our population. China is pumping out more CO2 than the US and Europe combined, good luck trying to shame them into becoming green.
There is no real evidence that fracking a well at 9,000 feet has any impact of the water tables above 2,000 feet. The Earth quakes are all in areas that are overdue for a massive Earth quake so that is what I would worry about more than some high pressure fluid deep in the ground. Water that could be effected by fracking is so deep that it will be so high in salt and other chemicals that no one could drink it.
Find me a developed nation with our size economy and population that pollutes less than we do. Good luck. Standard commie talking points. Nobody is going to give a (*)(*)(*)(*) about the environment while they are actively starving because of the left-wing job killing policies that you are advocating for. When we have a thriving economy again then we can worry about which silver fish is on the verge of extinction. So it's not enough that you don't drive, you want to force other people to not drive. Typical left wing arrogance. You fancy yourself as part of an elite class of people and your ways are better than everyone else's and they should follow your example, whether they want to or not. The fascism behind liberalism is getting easier to see by the day.
Just the EU alone has 100M more people than the US and our industry is comparable enough. China pumps out more than the US and Canada, not Europe. In short; you're making shiite up.
Well this "ignorant elitist leftist" would rather not drink flammable tap water, thank you very much. Vermont's reasons for having some of the toughest environmental regulations in the country (actually maybe even the toughest) frankly have everything to do with our state's considerable reliance on tourism as a source of revenue. Vermont's main appeal to tourists has to do with the scenic landscape and quality slopes. Hence it's probably in our economic best interests to keep our natural environment in fairly good repair. Now that certainly isn't true for many other states. Overall, the U.S. economy is mainly built on automobile sales. As an economic determinist, I grasp the implication that, in an overall sense, we (America) are probably never going to really get serious about ecological sustainability until it's too late or until we at least have an economic system that's capable of long-term planning in place. I just thought I'd highlight our example in this area, in spite of its motives, because I'm a proponent of sustainable economics. Frankly, developments like these make me proud to be a Vermonter!
Wouldn't it be nice to see Big Energy collude with Big Energy Shipping to slap a painfully steep surcharge on delivering gasoline, natural gas, and fuel oil to Vermont?.... let the eco-marxists learn first hand that electing fellow traveler morons has a direct, negative economic impact on their day to day lives?? Ahh...to be king for a day.
