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Thanks to fracking, there’s something in the water in Pennsylvania

by ChristaRector Posted on August 29, 2014

Thanks to fracking, there’s something in the water in Pennsylvania

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29 Aug 2014 5:31 PM

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Thanks to fracking, there’s something in the water in Pennsylvania

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It’s been a bad, bad summer for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. But arguably, it’s been a much worse summer for the actual citizens of Pennsylvania, because they have been repeatedly and consistently screwed over by an unhappy combination of corporate interests, bureaucratic incompetence, and methane. That’s quite a cocktail of misery — when life gives you a Long Island iced tea, if you will.

The latest development: The DEP has released a list of 243 reports of drinking water contamination in Pennsylvania since the fracking boom first started in 2008. The DEP originally alluded to these incidents of contamination in January, but its specifics have not released until now.

From the Associated Press:

The problems listed in the documents include methane gas contamination, spills of wastewater and other pollutants, and wells that went dry or were otherwise undrinkable. Some of the problems were temporary, but the names of landowners were redacted, so it wasn’t clear if the problems were resolved to their satisfaction. Other complaints are still being investigated.

The most incidences of contamination occurred in northeastern Pennsylvania, but they’re widespread throughout the state.

Last month, Pennsylvania’s auditor general issued a report detailing the extent to which the DEP is ill-equipped to properly regulate and monitor the exploding (no pun intended) natural gas industry in the state.

For the record, finding the actual list of incidents on the DEP website was no easy task. In fact, I ultimately found it through a link from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and then searched backward according to the URL to figure out where it actually was. If you think “Water Supply Determination Letters” is a clear and obvious title for the document containing this list, then you have a subtler mind than I do.

Now that we have 243 pieces of evidence that fracking is, well, not great for the people who have to live near it, can we stop pretending otherwise? Please? Quite frankly, DEP, you can’t really afford any more embarrassment here.

Source:
Online list IDs water wells harmed by drilling

, Wall Street Journal.

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Thanks to fracking, there’s something in the water in Pennsylvania

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Tax-Free Internet Sales May Finally Be a Thing of the Past

by MiltonREGwamjz Posted on December 2, 2013

Mother Jones

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced on 60 Minutes last night that Amazon would someday make home deliveries via propeller-driven drones. Will this actually ever happen? I don’t know, but I suspect that Bezos doesn’t really care. Today, everyone is talking about Amazon drones, which means they’re talking about Amazon. Mission accomplished.

However, it turns out that today brings much more important news for online retailers. Tacocopters may make for amusing conversation, but sales taxes mean a lot more for the bottom line:

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to get involved in state efforts to force online retailers such as Amazon.com to collect sales tax from customers even in places where the companies do not have a physical presence….All but five states impose sales taxes, and an increasing number have passed legislation to force online retailers such as Overstock and eBay to begin collecting those taxes from customers.

….As is its custom, the court gave no explanation for turning down petitions from Amazon and Overstock.com to review a decision by New York’s highest court to uphold that state’s 2008 law requiring sales tax collections.

Seattle-based Amazon has no offices, distribution centers or workforce in New York. But the New York Court of Appeals said Amazon’s relationship with third-party affiliates in the state that receive commissions for sending Web traffic its way satisfied the “substantial nexus” necessary to force the company to collect taxes.

Happy Cyber Monday! As it happens, Amazon pretty much caved in on this issue a year ago, but this is still an important non-ruling. It almost certainly means that every other state will fairly quickly follow the lead of California and New York, and it means that every other online retailer will have to start collecting state sales taxes too.

At a guess, this might also spur Congress to pass national legislation governing online sales taxes. Republicans have resisted this since it would effectively raise taxes on consumers, but if that’s going to happen anyway then it might be worthwhile to at least harmonize the treatment of companies across all 50 states. It could even be a chance to put some modest limits on internet sales taxes, which might actually count as a tax reduction in Republican eyes. Who knows? But certainly national legislation has a slightly brighter outlook today than it did yesterday.

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Tax-Free Internet Sales May Finally Be a Thing of the Past

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Leaked Treaty Puts US Hard Line on Patents and Copyrights on Public Display

by IvyUDD Posted on November 15, 2013

Mother Jones

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A couple of days ago, WikiLeaks leaked a copy of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. This is interesting in its own right, of course, but it’s especially interesting because the draft copy specifies exactly which provisions the United States is fighting for and what positions other countries are taking. This means that if the US wins agreement for its demands, it will be a very public cave-in by most of the other negotiators. Needless to say, that makes caving in harder.

That said, what’s actually in the draft? Today, Henry Farrell talks to George Washington University professor Susan Sell about the chapter dealing with intellectual property (trademarks, copyrights, patents, etc.). Here’s an excerpt:

After Thursday’s leak of the intellectual property chapter it is obvious why the USTR and the Obama administration have insisted on secrecy. From this text it appears that the U.S. administration is negotiating for intellectual property provisions that it knows it could not achieve through an open democratic process. For example, it includes provisions similar to those of the failed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) that the European Parliament ultimately rejected….

People call it a Hollywood wish list — why?

Some provisions of the text resurrect pieces of SOPA and PIPA and ACTA that many found to be objectionable. The entertainment industries (movies and music) championed these agreements and sought stronger protections in the digital realm. These industries were stunned when SOPA and PIPA got killed. Only the United States and New Zealand oppose a provision that would require compensation for parties wrongfully accused of infringement (QQ.H.4). The United States is alone in proposing criminal procedures and penalties “even absent willful trademark, counterfeiting or copyright or related rights piracy”.

Only the United States and Australia oppose a provision limiting Internet Service Provider liability (QQ.I.1); U.S. copyright holders would like ISPs to be held liable for hosting infringing content. The United States also proposes extending copyright to life plus 95 years for corporate-owned copyrights. Hollywood consistently presses for longer copyright terms and it is doing so here.

Read the whole thing for more. It’s no surprise that the United States is pushing the hardest line on IP protections, but it is a little surprising that its line is so hard and that it’s apparently getting strong pushback from virtually every negotiating partner.

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Leaked Treaty Puts US Hard Line on Patents and Copyrights on Public Display

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Dot Earth Blog: Talking Climate Online With David Roberts of Grist

by Myrna Posted on June 14, 2013

A “very serious person” and “dirty hippy” talk climate change. Originally posted here:  Dot Earth Blog: Talking Climate Online With David Roberts of Grist ; ;Related ArticlesDot Earth Blog: A Film Presses the Climate, Health and Security Case for Nuclear EnergyTalking Climate Online With David Roberts of GristSeeking Constructive Debate on Nuclear Energy ;

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Dot Earth Blog: Talking Climate Online With David Roberts of Grist

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Pesticides are killing off America’s birds

by HarralGeidl697 Posted on February 26, 2013

Pesticides are killing off America’s birds

By John Upton

Flickr:

Len Blumin

This adorable burrowing owl could be killed by agricultural pesticides.

Q: How are burrowing owls like honeybees?

A: Both are being inadvertently slaughtered by massive applications of pesticides.

OK, so that wasn’t a funny joke, although it might have been nuanced enough to land me a job at The Onion. And truth be told, it wasn’t actually a joke.

A study published in the online journal PLOS ONE finds that the use of pesticides is the leading cause of a decline in grassland bird species in North America. From the Twin Cities Pioneer Press outdoors blog:

The loss of habitat is real in the corn belt, as are its potential effects on a host of grassland bird species, some hunted, some not.

But a new study concludes that declines of such birds, from the ring-necked pheasant to the horned lark, are more the result of pesticide use than any other factor, including habitat decline.

While the deadly links between pesticide use and bees have been widely reported in recent years, leading some European countries to suspend the use of certain products, less attention has been paid to the devastating effects of the poisons on bird populations. Species of owls, sparrows, and meadowlarks are on the long list of American farm-dwelling birds that are disappearing in part because they’re sucking down any of more than 100 types of pesticides. The pesticides also take a toll by killing the insects that the birds would eat.

The study “reminds us that the poisonings of birds and other wildlife chronicled a half century ago by famed biologist and author Rachel Carson are by no means a thing of the past,” Cynthia Palmer of the American Bird Conservancy said in a statement.

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Pesticides are killing off America’s birds

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New York’s bike share gets a new new new new new launch date

by Myrna Posted on December 10, 2012

New York’s bike share gets a new new new new new launch date

By Philip Bump

New York City’s bike-share program — originally slated for late summer, then this fall, then some point next year, then who-knows-when-because-Sandy — will be launched in May of 2013. If you believe the city, which you shouldn’t, based on its prior track record.

D.C.’s version of the bike share, which made launching one look deceptively easy.

Here’s what the plan is this time, according to The New York Times:

In August, the city said the program would initially feature 7,000 bikes at 420 stations by March, then expand to 10,000 bikes and 600 stations by this summer.

Now, the plan is to have at least 5,500 bikes at 293 stations by May. There is no timeline for the program to expand to 10,000 bikes. …

[City transportation commissioner Janette] Sadik-Khan said “we still remain committed” to expanding the program to 10,000 bikes, but she said she was unsure when that might happen.

My guess: no time soon! My sympathies to Ms. Sadik-Khan, however, for constantly having to update her talking points on why the bike share isn’t yet in place.

Anyway, no need to rush. Who would ever need a bike in a city with public transit that always works flawlessly and in which there’s never any problem getting fuel?

Intrade, the online, bet-on-anything-you-want market, isn’t yet taking bets on when New York’s bike share will go live. If a market appears there, a bit of investment advice: go short.

Source

Newly Delayed Bike Share Program Is Now to Begin in May, New York Times

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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New York’s bike share gets a new new new new new launch date

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