http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/first-principles/primary-sources/the-sharon-statement
Archives for January 2013
Levin on guns, gangs, & govt.
‘Greenfellas’ Flimflam
Greenfellas: The Italian Mafia Muscles In On Green Energy Racket
Posted 01/28/2013 07:02 PM ET, Investors Business Daily
Big Government: For an industry all puffed up about its supposed environmental virtue, green energy sure is attracting a dirty crowd. Witness its latest entrant, Italy’s Mafia. The mob knows a good fraud when it sees one.
Alongside strip joints, drug smuggling, human trafficking, leg-breaking and political shakedowns, Mafia soldiers have moved in on the something-for-nothing world of green energy.
The Washington Post, in a page-one story, reported last week that a major sting operation by Italian authorities yielded a swarm of corrupt front groups run not by green hipsters, but by the Cosa Nostra of Sicily and the Calabrian syndicate known as ‘Ndrangheta.
The plot was “part ‘Sopranos,’ part ‘An Inconvenient Truth,'” the Post noted, with the mob shaking down legitimate farmers for title to their land, and then accepting EU subsidies for windmill construction, paying off political players to ensure the subsidies came.
It’s the latest chapter in an ongoing story of corruption continuously surrounding green energy. In 2009, Italy’s National Association of Wind Energy boss Oreste Vigorito was busted for building wind farms on public subsidies that sopped up state cash and delivered nothing. In 2010, cops seized $2 billion in 43 solar and wind fronts from “businessman” Vito Nicastri, known as “Lord of the Winds.”
Can’t happen here? Along with pay-for-play subsidies that have rolled into politically tied companies like Solyndra, green Mafia scams have reached the Netherlands, Britain, Ireland and Spain. Meanwhile, in Germany, carbon trading has drawn corruption of its own.
Italian blogger Pasquale Trivisonne denounced the waste of these scams in Italy — with wasted farmland and noisy windmills, but zero jobs and no energy.
It’s money in the pockets of criminals. Green millionaires such as Vigorito got their seed capital from U.S. sources, Trivisonne noted. Vigorito, for one, had ties to Bryan Caffyn, founder of the “Cape Wind Project” in Massachusetts, which has been criticized for giving taxpayers little value for their money.
The Mafia only moves in on industries that have no need to create anything of value.
The green energy industry is shot through with government cash and “direction” because it can’t stand on its own. Its inability to turn a profit legitimately leaves it one of the least-free markets.
A nonfree market is like a dung heap for creepy crawlies. No wonder the face of green is increasingly a mob face. It’s an offer the Mafia can’t refuse.
Colorado drilling activity
Environmentalists, with a basket of scare tactics, have evidently decided to carve out Elbert County from the modern world of energy harvesting . Meanwhile, Denver Basin aquifers were successfully protected through thousands of oil and gas drilling installations across the front range. (click graphics to enlarge) It is time for sound science to control the local regulatory process.
Rick Blotter of Agate
He doesn’t want it, so no one should have it.
good intentions run amok
Rio Grande County oil and gas decision delayed again
Posted: Thursday, Jan 24th, 2013
By Judy ApplewhiteDEL NORTE—First Liberty Energy, Inc. is seeking conditional use permit to drill for oil in the Old Woman’s Creek area near Del Norte.
The company has already received a permit from the Colorado Division of Oil and Gas, COGCC. Rio Grande county commissioners called a public hearing on Jan. 16 to give the locals a chance to weigh in on the decision process. . .
See whole story: Rio Grande County oil and gas decision delayed again
Now see:
The previous blog post about the planning commission activities last night showed a promising forum between government, industry experts and the public that could produce a practicable working arrangement that might protect all stakeholders’ interests in the development of oil and gas in Elbert County. Nothing is certain but things appeared to be moving toward a compromise solution.
Why, then, did the BOCC decide to create an oil and gas citizens advisory committee now, just when things appear to be on track in the planning commission?
Was the planning commission process we witnessed last night too reasonable? Too scientific? Insufficiently corruptible? Inadequately manipulable for political objectives? Did the planning commission not come up with the right answer?
Take a hard look at the above story out of Rio Grande County yesterday, for it is predictive of what our BOCC is setting up. Our BOCC apparently wants an ongoing scenario where, after all state and local regulatory burdens have been met, after all available science and best management practices have been satisfied, further approval will be thrown into a kangaroo BOCC court to be punched around for who knows how long.
Even with the regulatory scheme contemplated in Elbert County’s currently proposed “O&G Zone + MOU” device, modifications to the standard MOU, after confirmation by all the planners and experts, still must pass under the magic pen of the BOCC. Is this where the proposed citizens political advice takes over? The planners say this will only add 2 weeks to the expedited MOU approval process, and rumor has it they have beachfront property out by the Blotter place in Agate for sale..
If the end game in this deal is merely to create grist for the BOCC mill, then let’s skip all the expensive foreplay and get right to the main event.
B_Imperial
oil & gas planning
Continuation Part 2: here
(Note: A couple minutes of discussion between parts 1 and 2 were lost due to a degraded system that began repetitive disconnects. Not sure if it was the internet link or webcast software, so I re-initiated all elements and that cleared up the problem.)
brevity
Commissioner Rowland, after observing your leadership in a couple meetings now, I have to give you some constructive advice. I’m writing this for the good of the forum, and I expect you to change your speaking style as a result of it. I have to assume no one has told you this before, and that you’re not going to hear it from anyone at the county over whom you have dominion. So here goes.
The campaign is over. You don’t need to consume every available syllable in the room like a ravenous pack animal at a feeding frenzy. You won already.
I wouldn’t expect you to change the way you think. But the way you speak impacts everyone in the room. The cumulative time you cost an audience is significant.
If you expect to hold an audience over the next four years, you must not continue to air out every incomplete thought, and every alternate construction of language that just says the same thing in as many different ways as you can imagine. The repetition is not effective. It’s redundant.
The office you hold is not a casual forum. People go there to hear legal decisions that might affect them in the future, and if necessary, to add some data to improve the quality of a future decision. They don’t go to hear streams of consciousness that are not dispositive to making a decision.
Effective leadership is orderly, succinct, and respectful of scarce time. Please respect the time of “we the people” whom you have often spoken of as your principle motivation.
Lay out the facts in clear non-repetitive statements when a decision calls for them. Everyone thinks about the issues all the time. If you have new information, then please, advance the topic. Otherwise, let someone else speak who does have new information to impart.
B_Imperial
Green poverty pimps
“What on earth has happened to democracy if the opinions of mere fractions of the electorate are allowed to dominate the economic self-interest of far more? Who is to create a “controversy” out of thin air next?”
standard meeting notices
The Open Meetings Law
frackchecking
“Let’s put some facts in those minds and see what happens.”
Ross prejudiced against O&G
agenda timing
Agenda expected to be resolved with 30 minutes to spare on 24-hour statutory notice deadline. . .wouldn’t want to give potential rebuttals any more time than the legal minimum to get prepared.
reason v emotion
Ric Morgan and Rick Blotter on setbacks.
Consider that Mr. Blotter made his preference known moments after Mr. Morgan had described the consequences of the proposed setback. Blotter, without hesitation, had completely filtered out the foregoing analysis in favor of his agenda for stopping all drilling. This is very typical of the Left. They’ll engage in endless dialog under the pretense of seeking truth. But it’s not truth they’re after.
industry not asked
Weld Commissioners Call for Dismissal of Setback Ruling
By Jennifer Finch, Information Specialist, Weld County Office of County Commissioners
Thursday, January 17th, 2013, 4:02pm
Reposted from littleton.kdvr.com
The Weld County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution on Wednesday, January 16, 2013, calling upon the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) to dismiss its recent decision to increase setbacks for oil and gas facilities and to convene “a meaningful stakeholder process that will consider the need for a close working and coordinating relationship between local governments and the COGCC…”
The resolution cities numerous issues with the COGCC rule-making process including: the lack of stakeholder outreach by the COGCC to the Local Governmental Designees (LGD’s) of three of the highest producing counties in the state, including Weld County; the violation of C.R.S. 24-4-103(4)(a) regarding the rule-making process of the COGCC ruling; and the underestimation of the comparison of the probable costs and benefits of the proposed rule to the probable costs and benefits of inaction as is also required by Colorado Revised Statue (C.R.S. 24-4-103(4.5)(IV)).
“The process we witnessed last week at the hearings was government at its worst,” said Weld County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer. “To rush this rule change through in the manner they did, without allowing the public to view and analyze the language and the impacts of the change, is irresponsible.”
The resolution also states that the Board of Commissioners has “…no intention of changing Weld County’s setbacks merely to mirror those setbacks set by the COGCC without any scientific or technological basis, which…the Proposed Amendments and new Rules lack…”
“County government, our municipalities and the oil and gas industry have worked together for decades to develop setback regulations that work for Weld County,” said Commissioner Douglas Rademacher. “The proposed change, which is not based on science, will have a substantial negative impact on our farmers, our ranchers, our schools, our fire districts…these changes will negatively impact the entire state of Colorado.”
accountability and transparency
Commissioners Meetings Details
Please click here to see Special Meeting-Executive Session
“. . .to discuss specific legal matters with their attorneys.”
| Meeting Name: | Elbert County Board of County Commissioners-Special Meeting |
| Meeting Type: | Commissioners Meetings |
| Date: | 1/15/2013 |
| Start Time: | 02:00 PM |
| End Time: | 03:00 PM |
| All day meeting? | No |
| Location: | 215 Comanche-County Administrative Offices, 2nd Fl |
| Contact Name: | Candace Meece |
| Contact Phone: | 303-621-3133 |
| Contact Email: | candace.meece@elbertcounty-co.gov |
“(b) Conferences with an attorney for the local public body for the purposes of receiving legal advice on specific legal questions. Mere presence or participation of an attorney at an executive session of the local public body is not sufficient to satisfy the requirements of this subsection (4).”
“Specific legal matters.” Unaccountable and transparently vague.
The misunderstood MOU
“Under Bowen/Edwards, state preemption by reason of operational conflict can arise where the effectuation of a local interest would “materially impede or destroy the state interest.” Bowen/Edwards, supra, 830 P.2d at 1059.” (http://caselaw.findlaw.com/co-court-of-appeals/1394587.html)
At Thursday’s Planning Commission public meeting, in response to a question about the material differences between items in the proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and COGCC regulations, Richard Miller said that (paraphrasing), “If it’s in the MOU then it is a higher standard than called for by the COGCC.”
There are at least 22 such items and some of them cost drillers, developers, and mineral rights owners substantial sums of money and lost property.
In addition, Best Management Practices (BMP) references in the proposed MOU have no definition. When asked what authority is responsible for defining these standards, Mr. Miller said that their incorporation into the MOU came about through informal discussions by the editing committee.
Informal discussions? No ISO? No ASTM? No ANSI?
The Bureau of Land Management is one source of definition for these standards. A scan of the Air Resource BMPs pdf shows a wide range of operational practices that may not be congruent with COGCC regulations.
The Natural Resources Law Center at CU Boulder publishes the Intermountain Oil and Gas BMP project. These standards appear to be closely coupled to objectives generally found in the environmentalism rubric.
Elbert County’s proposed MOU incorporates numerous expensive and open ended directives that are undefined by any measurable standard that could provide a means to enforce them. By its own terms, the MOU contract fails for lack of specificity. Moreover, this game of hiding county zoning dictats inside a compulsory agreement in order to sidestep COGCC’s occupation of the field of oil and gas regulation reeks of petty magisterial hubris. “Yeah, that’s the ticket, we’ll call it a contract. . .”
On the proposed setback scheme alone, Ric Morgan’s analysis presented at Thursday’s planning commission illustrated that all drilling would be preempted in most of Elbert County. Moreover, the impact of drilling envelopes on subsequent property development, post oil and gas development, has not even been addressed.
“The mission of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) is to foster the responsible development of Colorado’s oil and gas natural resources.” It is fair to say that Elbert County’s proposed MOU completely frustrates this mission, and this represents an operational conflict in toto.
All of this MOU environmentalism, however, is probably a moot point because, as the COGCC representative indicated after the meeting, “Not a driller in the country would accept these terms.”
This means that the special use review, 6-month long, expensive, planning roadblock is the only ostensible means to get an oil well approved in Elbert County. Compared to approval time frames in other parts of the state and country measured in days rather than months, Elbert County is effectively closed for oil and gas business.
Since, as one planning commission member recently noted, the county has already been closed for business for the past 5 years, this should come as no surprise.
A year ago, Arapahoe County, similarly situated to Elbert County today, made the right decision by shutting down a local oil and gas planning process that had run amok, and affirming COGCC authority.
In Elbert County, it is not enough to end the MOU madness and default to special use review. We already know that special use review is a deal killer too.
Will Elbert County be able to break the stranglehold the environmentalist no-growth movement has on the county and do something economically beneficial for the citizens? Based on the preliminary moves made by the new BOCC majority floated on a tide of regulation seeping through CDS and the Planning Commission, don’t bet on it.
B_Imperial
Proposed Oil and Gas Taking
5th Am. to the U.S. Constitution:
No person shall be. . . .deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Oil and Gas Cover Letter from ElCo Webposting 1-2-2013:
An “Oil and/or Gas Development Permit” may be obtained following one of two Special Permit review Processes:
Major facilities will follow the standard Special Use Review process as provided for in these regulations. (Approximately 5-6 month process)
or
Minor facilities may choose to apply as a standard Special Use Review process or may choose to follow an administrative process, provided a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Elbert County is approved in conjunction. (Approximately 30-45 days)
It shall be Elbert County’s policy to encourage the use of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with individual oil and gas production companies that are active within the County and are proposing a Minor Oil and/or Gas Facility.
OIL & GAS DRAFT REGS – Final for Public Hearings SUR PERMIT ZR PART II SECTIONS 26 1-2-2013:
Section 26.2 – Application Review & Permit Processing
B. POLICY STATEMENT – MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (for Minor Oil and/or Gas
Facilities only)For those oil and gas production companies that choose not to enter into a MOU with Elbert County; the requirements of Section “E”, below, will apply.
E. PROCESSING OF A SPECIAL USE PERMIT APPLICATION FOR A MINOR OIL AND/OR GAS FACILITY (When the production company does NOT have an executed MOU with Elbert County) & FOR A MAJOR OIL AND/OR GAS FACILITY
The Special Use Permit process for a Minor Oil & Gas Development Permit in Elbert County when the oil/gas production company chooses not to enter into a MOU with Elbert County, or for obtaining a Major Oil & Gas Development Permit is as follows:
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING O&G 1-2-2013 Final for Public Hearings:
ADDENDUM “A”
1. There shall be a minimum of 1,320 feet between the wellhead and any residential structure, domestic well or platted building envelope.
5 . . . Only closed-loop drilling systems shall be permitted in Elbert County for drilling and completion operations rather than open earthen pits.
Summary:
Terms in Elbert County’s proposed MOU are more restrictive than COGCC regulations.
Nothing prohibits Elbert County from seeking a voluntary agreement between energy developers and the county for more restrictive conditions of development. But this is hardly a voluntary agreement.
The above scheme threatens a longer (5 to 6 months), and much more expensive planning process for companies that do not agree to the more restrictive conditions in the MOU for their minor Oil and Gas facilities–the majority of the facilities. Community and Development Services is proposing treating all minor facilities under the process for major facilities if the developer does not kow tow to the terms of the MOU.
Where is the “just compensation” to developers and mineral interest owners who do not agree with Elbert County’s more restrictive Oil and Gas development conditions? Not only is there no “just compensation,” there are in fact penalties–added procedural costs and the lost time value of potential earnings.
For those developers who accept CDS’s coercive scheme, the MOU appears to have a few weak links–the adhesive forced circumstances constructed by Elbert County government that create a take-it-or-leave-it superior bargaining position, the requirement of the additional expense of closed loop systems, and the opportunity costs from land taken out of production due to the greatly expanded setbacks. Where is the “just compensation” for these takings?
While paying lip service to the governing regulatory laws of the State of Colorado promulgated by the COGCC, this sham MOU contract is clearly intended to subvert state regulatory authority.
This proposed scheme appears ripe for legal challenges from developers, stakeholders and the state. Didn’t Rowland and Ross both campaign on the claim that the (then) current BOCC had a propensity for spawning litigation against the county? It seems they’re rushing headlong into a much deeper quagmire.
B_Imperial
Katy bar the door
Enviros fool themselves over the purported dangers to the environment from oil and gas fracturing. The only thing this technology puts at risk is their ability to control society through fear. Environmentalism requires that man pose a continuing threat to the earth. For them, man is essentially evil, destructive and polluting. He damages everything he touches. Enviros built a trillion dollar industry on this myth, and any evidence to the contrary must be ruthlessly suppressed. No tactics are off limits in this final battle for our very survival—and the protection of their rice bowl.
Oil and gas fracturing pops the balloon of environmental mythology with a pin of proven technology. Rather than merely promising betterment, fracturing delivers, and this genuinely threatens environmentalists. In Jonas Nightingale’s words in the movie Leap of Faith, “I know the real thing when I see it.” When enviros look out above their denial, they know it too.
Meanwhile, science, causation, the direction of time, basic physics, language definitions, human nature–these building blocks of civilization must all bow to the higher objectives of the mission. Reality must give way to the higher purposes of gaia lovers, busy replacing God with a new supreme being. They practice new ritual sacrifices in new church buildings full of think tanks and symposiums attended by enviro high priests and their legal staffs. They sanctify their objectives in fervent reliance on metaphysical constructs much like those held in traditional religions.
These modern gnostic practitioners, possessors of true knowledge—not the stuff most people hold as commonly true—lead the Church of Environmentalism. Most hold high office in the adjunct Church of Social Justice, as well as the Perpetual Church of Totalitarian Light, the Church for Reconstructed Sexuality, the Church for Cultural Equivocation, the Church for Economic Liberation from Capital, the Church for Recreational Mental Adjustment Through Chemistry, the Church for Aliens Spawned Earthly Life, as well as numerous smaller ad hoc conclaves. Go fishing with one of these worms and you’ll tip over the whole can.
Due to the fluid notions of deterministic causation that all these churches share, symposiums begun under the auspices of one church usually develop into general sessions for the advancement of all related modalities. Practitioners find this a real benefit—like getting something for nothing—except in these cases it’s getting nothing for nothing. But that’s okay, inside their klatches they remain a cheerful bunch who practice abundant love and happiness among each other.
Non-initiated skeptics only see the prickly shell that new age cults present to outsiders. This shell protects insider believers from the intrusion of information that could lead to schisms and defections from the ranks. An unfortunate side effect of their self-referential domain is a growing disconnection from reality feedback that, over time, might help them improve the efficacy of their belief systems. But this begs a larger question, already answered through their modifications to many of the informing constructs that normally lead to provable objective knowledge.
In the long run, and not withstanding the fervency of environmentalists’ beliefs, their willful dodges will play out and the rules that govern the universe will hold sway. In the short run, Katy bar the door because this party is just getting started. Again.
But let’s not lose sight of the forest for the trees. It is the enforcement of beliefs through intimidation, coercion and legal compunction to achieve pre-ordained secular outcomes that offends far more than the substance of their conclusions. A conservative might have no problem arriving at some point in the Left’s universe of acceptable ends, provided they got there from substantiated, proven evidence.
Ironically, while professing unfathomable degrees of faith in their objectives, on the issues the Left have claimed dominion over they grant no faith to mankind. They do not allow people to voluntarily make up their own minds. And this is quite odd for a group of people who call themselves humanist.
B_Imperial