Natural gas well explodes in La.

Who will have the most natural gas well incidents, like explosions? Pennsylvania or Louisiana? Read here.

Rep. Barletta laughs at constituents who challenge Big Oil subsidies

And this guy, former mayor of the old anthracite coal town, Hazleton, Pa., represents the district in which I live. Whatta guy. Read about his sense of humor in this snippet.Meanwhile, the birthers’ favorite, President Obama, singles out Big Oil in these comments.

Trump dogged by rumors his hair is not from the U.S.

Ohmawgawd. The Trump is wearing imported hair! And it was probably imported illegally!! Read about it all here. The so-called “balders’ movement is gatghering steam. Look out.

Fracking’s footprint transforming Pa. landscape

It already is and, thus, the headline is present tense, not future. What a debacle. In the old anthracite coal field region where I live (before moving to the Green Mountain State this summer), the extractive industries have left behind a sad landscape of stripping pits, streams polluted with acid mine drainage, fragmented and blasted-away wildlife habitat, etc. etc. Now comes the natural gas extractive industry.

Utah sues over federal wilderness proposal

Yet another government, this time the state of Utah, sues to stop (ohmawgawd!) the designation of more wilderness within its boundaries. Earth to Utah: Federal lands in Utah, Pennsylvania, or any other state, belong to all Americans! Read about Utah’s monumental wasting of tax dollars in this article.

The lure of green spaces

Now that’s a thought that goes right over the heads of thousands upon thousands of Pennsylvanians, notably those living in the starter palaces and McMansions of today’s sprawl universe. Particularly in Pennsylvania, people pay zillions to pave over Nature and the landscape. And when they’re done with one project, it is time to start another, and then another.

Common loon’s call stirs good memories

Here is my latest newspaper column, in which I recount a pleasing wildlife experience of a week ago and another such moment experienced from our yard at Plattsburgh Air Force Base, N.Y., in the late 80s.

An especially brilliant comment from off-road cowboys’ site ‘Thumpertalk’

I found this on Ted Williams’ Fly Rod & Reel blog.

…These desolate areas of desert in question here are not good for anything but holding the earth together … Life can not even be sustained there without high cost …

Why on earth do these goody-goody 2-shoes people give a crap about it?

The lowdown on Senator James Inhofe, denier-in-chief

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OIL) claims hydraulic fracturing has “never” contaminated the water supply — one day after spill contaminates stream.

Think Progress has the story on the Senate’s denier-in-chief.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) is perhaps Congress’ most reliable defender of dirty energy and evangelizer against the “hoax” of global warming. This morning, he took his message to Fox News host Brian Kilmeade’s radio show, where he extolled the virtues of hydraulic fracturing, a method of extracting natural gas known widely as “fracking.” Fracking is a relatively new and untested technique, but Inhofe insisted that there’s nothing to worry about, as he claimed fracking has “never poisoned anyone” nor ever contaminated groundwater:

INHOFE: [There's] never been one case — documented case — of groundwater contamination in the history of the thousands and thousands of hydraulic fracturing. [...]

KILMEADE: Senator, has it ever poisoned anybody?

INHOFE: It’s never poisoned anyone.

While fracking has the potential to create vast new American energy supplies, Inhofe’s claim that it is completely without risk is either stunningly ignorant or intentionally dishonest. Just yesterday, a blowout at a Pennsylvania natural gas well engaged in fracking spilled thousands of gallons of toxic chemical-laced water, “contaminating a stream and forcing the evacuation of seven families who live nearby as crews struggled to stop the gusher,” the AP reported. Inhofe referenced the Pennsylvania spill in his interview, but said that it has “nothing to do with fracking” because it was a stream, not groundwater that was contaminated.

But fracking has contaminated groundwater. As a recent New York Times investigation confirmed, waste from fracking has contaminated groundwater and even drinking water with toxic and radioactive chemicals. The process relies on pumping toxic chemicals deep underground to break rock, and between 2005 and 2009, “hundreds of millions of gallons of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals” have been pumped into wells. Large amounts of radioactive materialhave been found in water supplies near fracking sites, many Pennsylvanians have gotten sick, the tap water in homes near fracking sites have caught on fire, and a home in Celveland, Ohio, blew up.

It’s worth noting that the oil and gas industry has been Inhofe’s top contributor over his political career, giving him over $450,000 in the last election cycle alone, even though Inhofe wasn’t up for reelection. Inhofe’s single largest campaign donor is oil conglomerate Koch Industries.

– A Think Progress repost.

Tip leads to closure in whooping crane shooting

Note: With only 400 birds in existence, every individual whooping crane is essential to the species’ survival. Read about the citizen’s tip.