American state legalises coal seam gas fracking on university campuses

[Humodour]

I'm at a loss for words.

 

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/pennsylvania-fracking-law-opens-drilling-college-campuses

 

Apologise for your country and its ways all you want, yanks. The man and the corporations who own him are ****ing you six ways to Sunday.

[Gorgon]

Fracking laws ?

 

mkay.

[BruceVC]

I'm at a loss for words.

 

http://www.motherjon...ollege-campuses

 

Apologise for your country and its ways all you want, yanks. The man and the corporations who own him are ****ing you six ways to Sunday.

 

I am probably missing something but I don't see the issue here. The universities need the revenue, the presidents of the universities still need to agree to it and the universities will gain money from the fracking. What has this got to do with big corporations owning the USA government ?

[Hurlshort]

This is another situation where Krezacks ignorance about how something in the US works betrays him. Many colleges own large tracts of land, if they can derive income from parts of that land, why wouldnt they? They arent plopping an oil rig down in the middle of the dining commons.

Edited October 14, 2012 by Hurlshot

[AGX-17]

I'm a liberal, but also a skeptical rationalist, and the whole issue of "fracking" has yet to produce startling results (that I'm aware of.) The whole "flaming water" fiasco was not scientifically traceable to to hydraulic fracturing. It's just another one of those industrial "not in my back yard" type activities at this point. Something like the tar sands in Canada is a bigger environmental concern until more research on fracking is done. In the end, it's all a distraction from the fact that we need to shift from limited sources of energy (unless Jesus sees fit to put more oil in the ground,) to renewable/sustainable ones. Just a desperate push to avoid the pain of having to come up with a new system of power generation. Because Americans are courteous and polite I'm not going to bring up any environmentally destructive economic activities in Australia.

 

Fun fact: http://cleantechnica...ime-high-again/

 

Germany wins again!

Edited October 14, 2012 by AGX-17

[pmp10]

I'm a liberal, but also a skeptical rationalist, and the whole issue of "fracking" has yet to produce startling results (that I'm aware of.) The whole "flaming water" fiasco was not scientifically traceable to to hydraulic fracturing. It's just another one of those industrial "not in my back yard" type activities at this point. Something like the tar sands in Canada is a bigger environmental concern until more research on fracking is done. In the end, it's all a distraction from the fact that we need to shift from limited sources of energy (unless Jesus sees fit to put more oil in the ground,) to renewable/sustainable ones. Just a desperate push to avoid the pain of having to come up with a new system of power generation. Because Americans are courteous and polite I'm not going to bring up any environmentally destructive economic activities in Australia.

 

Fun fact: http://cleantechnica...ime-high-again/

 

Germany wins again!

That's all well and good but given fossil-fuel consumption today there is no transitioning into renewable within foreseeable future.

Not even in Germany.

[GuybrushWilco]

Why exactly would we apologize for fracking activity on our own soil? Besides, this looks like a win win for the universities.

[AGX-17]

Why exactly would we apologize for fracking activity on our own soil? Besides, this looks like a win win for the universities.

 

The implication is that the school is potentially putting students at health risk, and without their prior knowledge or consent. i.e. a junior who has been attending for several years but would not have attended if they'd heard "this is the school where they have fracking on campus." Like I said, hydraulic fracturing is a new technique that needs to be studied, so there's no way to know if it's harmful at this point, but most people have an instinctive "NIMBY" reaction to industrial processes after the past hundred years of industrial/business malfeasance that forced a conservative republican administration (Richard Nixon's,) to form the Environmental Protection Agency. Private industry has a poor track record on external economic costs (giving the surrounding communities cancer, burying toxic waste under school playgrounds, dumping toxins into local waterways, etc.) if left to their own devices without regulation.

 

There are legitimate concerns here, but it's getting a little overheated.

 

Edit: If you think "burying toxic waste under playgrounds" is some hyperbolic Captain Planet fantasy, think again: http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Love_Canal

Edited October 15, 2012 by AGX-17

[Orogun01]

This is another situation where Krezacks ignorance about how something in the US works betrays him. Many colleges own large tracts of land, if they can derive income from parts of that land, why wouldnt they? They arent plopping an oil rig down in the middle of the dining commons.

This seems like an issue where your ignorance about how unsafe mining is. The contamination it causes spread far beyond the drilling site, I personally don't see how a little profit is worth the potential damage to the student's health.

[Lexx]

Sounds good. Now students have a place to work at while not learning.