Ann & Phelim Scoop #30: Cancel Culture On Campus, . . .

• Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fY9V27SAsFc

Ann and Phelim have a podcast on current topics, and they make films and theater productions using actual news stories or trial records. I supported their film on Dr. Gosnell, the abortion doctor.

“On this week’s episode of The Ann & Phelim Scoop, we recap our recent interview with Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, the psychologist and memory expert who served as an expert witness for the Defense in the Harvey Weinstein trial. Dr. Loftus discussed her work as well as NYU’s cancellation of her scheduled campus lecture - likely in response to her work with the Weinstein team. “

Dr. Loftus Interview 1:33 Hillary Clinton segment 8:13 NYU segment 11:25 FBI Lovebirds at CPAC 13:55 Mark Steyn Dinner 18:00 Fracking Ban 20:15 Cats 27:20

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-07/memory-expert-elizabeth-loftus-testifies-for-the-defense-in-harvey-weinstein-trial

“Loftus, a distinguished professor at UC Irvine, has appeared as an expert witness in more than 300 trials and has testified in a number of high-profile sexual misconduct and murder cases, including those of O.J. Simpson, Ted Bundy and the officers accused in the Rodney King beating. She also consulted in the trials of Michael Jackson and Bill Cosby.

She has routinely testified that memories can be transformed and contaminated — and, in some cases, altogether false.”

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling have created the shale gas boom

“The natural gas boom that transformed the energy picture in the United States in the last decade is still in its infancy, says John Shaw, chair of Harvard’s Earth and Planetary Sciences Department. . .

Fracking is probably not a direct cause of associated earthquakes, Shaw said, noting that the pressure to fracture the rock is applied for only minutes and is followed by the gas flowing from the rock into the borehole, which actually lowers the pressure in the surrounding rock. Instead, Shaw said, it is the disposal, by injection into the earth, of the ample waste liquid the process generates that is largely responsible for generating quakes. Some firms are now looking at recycling wastewater as an alternative.”

There are those who see fracking as a threat to renewable energy sources where they are either financially or emotionally invested.  In my opinion, that is behind many of the scare stories.

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/03/staying-power-for-shale-gas/

Warnings of peak oil are nearly as old as the oil industry

“. . . the International Energy Agency forecasts that U.S. production will still surpass Saudi Arabia’s output of 9.7 million barrels a day, and overtake Russia’s 10.3 million, perhaps sometime next year. This would make America the world’s largest oil producer, which it was from the dawn of the oil age through 1974. Thanks to the fracking boom, the U.S. surpassed Russia as the world’s largest natural-gas producer in 2013. “  Peak Oil Debunked Again.

Hydraulic fracturing is not contaminating wells

There are many studies to confirm that hydraulic fracturing is safe and our road to independence from the middle east, but this won't calm the voices of unreason because it is a political, not a scientific issue, much like global climate change.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/09/15/4153640_duke-scientists-fracking-didnt.html?rh=1

The findings of the Duke researchers, based on 133 drinking water wells in Texas and Pennsylvania, corroborate claims by the energy industry that the fracturing process alone is not likely to imperil drinking water.

“We’re saying to the industry, the good news is we don’t think it’s actually from the hydraulic fracturing itself,” said Avner Vengosh, Duke professor of geochemistry and water quality.

“So far we can say pretty categorically that we have not seen escape of the gas from the shale formation into the overlying aquifers,” Vengosh said.

The Duke scientists say their findings apply only to the 113 wells in Pennsylvania and the 20 in Texas they have sampled, but they are likely to also be true for the thousands of other wells that have been horizontally drilled and hydraulically fracked all over the country.

Oil and gas production is increasing—on private land—new technologies make it cleaner and a smaller footprint

We could have a booming economy with enough gas to export, if Obama would just allow drilling on federal land (half of the western U.S.).  But rabid environmentalists gum up the works with mountains of paper work. Since 2007, natural gas production on federal lands fell by 33 percent while production on state and private lands grew by 40 percent. According to Congressional Research Service, the average time to process an Application for Permits to Drill (APD) on federal lands increased 41 percent from 2006 to 2011, extending the process by nearly 90 days. The sale and profits could lower our taxes and countries now enslaved economically by China and Russia's high prices for fuel could enjoy the benefits. Instead, he allows the greenies to keep him on the plantation of failed 19th century socialism. They don't care about the earth; they care about destroying the country.

http://energycommerce.house.gov/brand/new-report-chronicles-oil-and-gas-production-federal-lands-declining-under-obamas-watch

Balancing the Economic Benefits with the Environmental Impacts of Shale Energy Development

"A vast black shale formation known as the Marcellus Shale runs from Ohio and Pennsylvania into southern and eastern New York. Trapped inside that shale is a tremendous amount of natural gas, anywhere from 168 trillion to 516 trillion cubic feet. To put this number in perspective, the top estimates would make the Marcellus Shale the second largest gas source in the entire world, behind only the South Pars field in Qatar and Iran." Henrietta Post

Today there is a “webinar” at OSU "Balancing the Economic Benefits with the Environmental Impacts of Shale Energy Development" presented by Tim Considine, School of Energy Resources, University of Wyoming. The webinar is free. http://changingclimate.osu.edu/webinars/ Figuring this might be one more presentation on how energy policies are ruining the environment (China and Russia are eating us for lunch by selling their energy), I was pleasantly surprised to find out Considine had done a presentation for Manhattan Institute and organization whose publications I trust.

Fracturing (fracking) is a big issue in Ohio—not sure about other states--but obviously it is in New York and Pennsylvania. Read what Considine has to say to New Yorkers based on his Pennsylvania experience and research. Probably similar for Ohio except the tax information and value added jobs information will be different and specific to Ohio. Very well documented with references at the end, plus hot links on the right hand side for more accessible, understandable material for the layperson. The charts on industry sectors are particularly interesting.

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/eper_09.htm

“The extraction, processing, and transportation of natural gas all affect the environment. However, expansion of the supply of natural gas permits the displacement of more polluting forms of energy. Estimating the net environmental impacts, therefore, requires comparing the upstream negative environmental externalities associated with gas development with the downstream positive externalities created by switching to natural gas.”

This study analyzes the economic and environmental impacts of shale gas drilling in New York and finds the net economic benefits to be significantly positive. Specifically:

1. An end to the moratorium would spur over $11.4 billion in economic output.
   
2. Some 15,000 to 18,000 jobs could be created in the Southern Tier and Western New York, regions which lost a combined 48,000 payroll jobs between 2000 and 2010.*
   
3. Another 75,000 to 90,000 jobs could be created if the area of exploration and drilling were expanded to include the Utica shale and southeastern New York, including the New York City watershed. (This assumes a regulatory regime that protects the water supply but permits drilling to continue.)
   
4. Localities and the state stand to reap $1.4 billion in tax revenues if the moratorium is allowed to expire.

Our findings suggest that the current shale gas drilling moratorium imposes a significant and needless burden on the New York State economy. In short, the economic benefits of developing shale gas resources in New York State are enormous and could be growing, while the environmental costs of doing so are small and could be diminishing if the moratorium is lifted and if proper policies are put into place.