What is a threat to the United States? ISIS. What is not a threat to the United States? Fracking. Those stories are below, plus- plans by Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) to support an American “energy renaissance.” And, Bloomberg reports on the complexity of splitting up the fortune of Bakken investor Harold Hamm.
Washington Examiner- New ISIS threat: America’s electric grid; blackout could kill 9 of 10
Former top government officials who have been warning Washington about the vulnerability of the nation’s largely unprotected electric grid are raising new fears that troops from the jihadist Islamic State are poised to attack the system, leading to a power crisis that could kill millions.
“By one estimate, should the power go out and stay out for over a year, nine out of 10 Americans would likely perish,” said Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the Center for Security Policy in Washington.
Pry, Gaffney and others have been pushing Congress to protect the electric grid from attacks including terrorists, assaults by U.S. foes like North Korea and even sun spots that can zap unprotected transformers with electromagnetic pulse.
National Review: What Has Become of Liberalism?
Oh, and let us not forget, the president and his supporters work very hard to paint their domestic political opponents as religious extremists because some private businesses and religious groups don’t want to pay for procedures that violate their conscience.
Now compare this to the people who are celebrating the fact their faith allows them to enslave women.
Just think about it for a moment. The president surely knows about this. His administration surely knows about this. And yet, the president — this modern incarnation of Lincoln, protector of women and opponent of domestic religious extremism — defines his goal for the Islamic State as reducing it to a “manageable problem.” Does this mean that if the group renounces any designs on attacking the U.S. homeland (an impossibility given the tenets of their faith and ambition for a global caliphate) he will stand by as they continue to barter women as sex slaves and breeders? This is the same man who campaigned in Berlin as a “citizen of the world” and champion of global community.
Op-ed for The Hill: Fracking is not a threat
First, it is important to note the costs and benefits of hydraulic fracturing have been studied extensively, and the author’s assertion that there has been “little if any honest consideration of the consequences” of hydraulic fracturing has no basis in reality. On the contrary, in addition to much private research, the federal government and state agencies have conducted numerous studies on fracking, including a large study by the Department of Energy that declared there was no evidence that chemicals from hydraulic fracturing have ever contaminated groundwater.
In contrast to the author’s claim that “independent science is beginning to catch up to this new technology and it’s all bad news,” numerous peer-reviewed, scientific journal articles have been overwhelmingly positive about fracking, finding the rapid upward flow of hydraulic-fracturing fluids and naturally occurring radioactive materials and heavy metals found in the shale rock is not physically plausible, meaning the process poses no realistic threat to drinking water (Flewelling and Sharma 2013). This is good news for everyone, because it means we can benefit from more oil and natural gas production while protecting the environment.
Op-ed written by Ian Orr (iorr@heartland.org), a research fellow for energy and environmental policy at The Heartland Institute, a conservative and libertarian think tank.
Politico’s Morning Energy: “EXISTENTIALISM FOR BILLIONAIRES”
So calls Bloomberg Businessweek of the conundrum facing the court over the divorce of Oklahoma oilman Harold Hamm from his wife of 26 years, Sue Ann. Splitting up the former couple’s assets requires dividing the pair’s assets between “active” and “passive” appreciation. What was luck and what was “smarts, sweat and a knack for finding crude,” BB asks. Your ME host had an old journalism professor who used to say, “There are no lucky, lazy journalists.” ME guesses the same is true for oil billionaires. It’s probably more complicated in the courts though. The story: http://buswk.co/1oCHl65
– Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) laid out his prescription for a “North American energy renaissance” on the first day of his trip to Mexico. The New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1Bd6E7P and the Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1prU3EZ