Binghamton, New York
- Below average test scores
- Median household income around $31K
- Unemployment rate 29% higher than national average
The population of Binghamton has been in decline since the last census was taken in 2010. As of now, the population has shrunk 5.5% to 44,785 citizens. The median household income is $31,103 and approximately 33.3% of the residents live below the poverty line. The income per capita is just $20,729 and the unemployment rate is up 29% higher than the national average.
All too common scene in Binghamton, New York
In Binghamton, there are 23 public schools that scored 24% below the national average test scores.
And, no one in New York State government cares, as the Southern Tier does a slow agonizing death. It was more important to do the bidding of the NRDC gang and the Park Foundation. It’s all just collateral damage to them, in fact.
Hat Tip: R.N.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Has Fit of Reason!
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette isn’t known for common sense, reason or much of anything that doesn’t fit the anti-fracking gentry class desired template, but get this editorial advocating an Allegheny County Executive veto of an anti-fracking measure passed by his county council.
At Deer Lakes Park, the fracking company Range Resources has successfully drilled for natural gas without disturbing the park or its users. There has been no evidence that the drilling has polluted the water supply or the air.
We agree with most experts, who say fracking is generally safe, though difficult. The county must thoroughly vet companies that want to frack underneath public lands. It must rigorously regulate any who do, and impose severe fines and penalties on any whose neglect of best practices leads to harm.
Some supporters of the ban oppose working with businesses in this way. Councilman Paul Klein argues a financial gain should not trump protecting “the sanctity of community assets from commercial intrusion.”
We agree: Allegheny County should protect common assets from commercial intrusion. But not all public-private arrangements are intrusive. They can be cooperative and mutually beneficial. The arrangement he and ten of his fellow council members want to ban is cooperative, not intrusive.
The county has land, under which is shale from which natural gas can be extracted. Fracking companies can extract it, but do not have the land. Arrangements like the one the county already has at Deer Lake benefit both parties — and crucially, at no cost to the county or its people.
We commend Mr. Fitzgerald for promising to veto it.
Progress!
Hat Tip: G.T.
Biden Continues Pushing FERC to Kill Natural Gas
Joe Biden is the most corrupt, inept President ever and continues, through his surrogates, to do everything possible to kill natural gas:
In February, FERC released a new certificate policy statement, which governs the process for approving new natural gas infrastructure projects. It also released an “interim” policy statement on how it will consider GHG emissions and climate change impacts from new natural gas infrastructure. FERC stated that it would apply the policy statements to both pending and new certificate applications.
Unsurprisingly, not all of the recommended changes to FERC’s permitting process and GHG policies were well received, especially since the rules were made effective immediately without a comment period or transition schedule. In fact, after receiving considerable backlash from Capitol Hill, FERC abruptly changed its issuances to “draft” policy statements rather than “updated” and “interim” policy statements just over one month after their issuance. In addition to opening a comment period to solicit feedback and input from the industry, FERC reversed course by noting that any policy change would apply prospectively to new proposed projects and not affect any pending projects.
While it is true for many years FERC has been considering whether to make revisions on how it approves new natural gas infrastructure, the proposed revisions to the certificate policy statement are significant, having the potential to stifle the development of greenfield projects and major expansions if they are allowed to go forward. The updated draft certificate policy statement is intended to provide a more comprehensive framework on how FERC makes decisions to approve new projects and to clarify how it will evaluate factors relevant to the public interest. It also is intended to provide more transparency around how environmental and economic interests are balanced.
However, the draft certificate policy statement doesn’t just make minor tweaks or updates to existing policies, and many in the energy industry are concerned the draft raises more questions than it provides answers. Most notably, FERC held that precedent agreements, which typically form the financial support for a new project, aren’t the sole factor and may not provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate the “need” for a new project. Instead, FERC will look for examples of the intended end-use of the gas as a major determining factor of whether the project is needed.
The burden to provide specific end-user examples now falls to the project applicant to show how the gas that is transported by the proposed project will be used to support a public interest determination. If the applicant does not include this data, or if FERC deems the information provided to be insufficient to demonstrate project need, FERC could deny certification of the project.
This is nothing less than insane, given the energy crisis the Biden administration has already created in its effort to reverse the wonderful achievements of Donald Trump.
Hat Tip: J.W.
Learn from Nature and Never Trust A Greenie!
Hat Tip: I.G.
Tom Shepstone