Washington, DC- The Institute for Legislative Analysis released a new report yesterday, which ranked all PA lawmakers present during last legislative session.
I've done a little "legislation analysis", myself; and have not only read and understood the words that were included in specific pieces of legislation, but have evaluated that wording in the context of "current events", also.
So, I urge the members of the Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus --and, indeed, ALL Members of ALL Legislatures-- to be prepared, IN THEIR OWN WORDS [and WITHOUT THE AID of whatever "notes" they might have, regarding any "endorsements" of "their (the Legislator's)" positions and votes on specific Legislation], to:
1) explain their own positions and votes, on individual pieces of Legislation; and to
2) characterize those positions and votes in terms of those individual Legislators' own, guiding principles, thoughts, and world-views.
EXAMPLE: The Institute for Legislative Analysis appears to have characterized PA House Bill #2451 (2022 Session) as a "Limited Government" Bill, with "Support" of that Bill [i.e., "voting for that Bill"] being considered to be a "Limited Government" position.
Why? The Institute for Legislative Analysis' "analysis" reads as follows:
"Support is the Limited Government Position as while there is a role for government to protect the river and surrounding landowners from direct and significant environmental threats, an outright ban on fracking represents an example of significant government overreach. A ban on fracking [by the Delaware River Basin Commission] not only infringes on property rights but subjects Americans to unnecessarily high energy prices."
Nowhere within that above-quoted analysis is any mention of the numerous earthquakes that occurred, in Oklahoma, as a direct result of wastewater-disposal methods used as part of the "fracking" process.
Thus, nowhere within that analysis is any mention of the likelihood that the use of "fracking", within Pennsylvania, might CAUSE EARTHQUAKES TO HAPPEN, WITHIN PENNSYLVANIA.
[NOTE: I am prepared to produce copies of emails that I sent, to the Office of the Governor [Wolf], proposing a strategy that the Executive Branch might use, to demonstrate, to the public, that the Commonwealth had not only evaluated the risks,...
...not only to Pennsylvania's own civil-engineering infrastructure, but to such facilities as Pennsylvanians might rely upon, that were owned and operated by the Federal Government and/or by neighboring States, also,...
...that might be affected by any EARTHQUAKES that had might be induced, within Pennsylvania, as a direct result of "fracking";...
...but that, indeed, the Government of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had "laid the groundwork" for a speedy and EFFECTIVE response to any earthquakes as might, in fact, occur, also.]
The Institute for Legislative Analysis' "analysis" of House Bill #2451 (2022 Session) acknowledges that...
"there is a role for government to protect the river and surrounding landowners from direct and significant environmental threats."
Yet, to deprive the DRBC of the authority to ban "fracking", outright, would remove whatever incentive that any private-sector or public-sector individual or group might have, to comply with DRBC instructions, should begging, pleading, and other strategies of "moral suasion" prove insufficient.
The phrase "Limited Government" should NOT be understood to equate to "Hamstrung Government", nor to "Government by Prayer and Supplication to Private-Sector and Public-Sector Groups and Individuals As If Such Persons and Groups Were Gods (Whether 'Benevolent' or Otherwise)".
I've read of coal-mines, in other States, whose bankrupt former owner/operators are long-departed, and whose current "owner-of-record" has no means of preventing toxic, chemical-laden ground-water from spilling out of those mines and into the Ohio River, thence to the Mississippi, Memphis, St. Louis, New Orleans, and the Gulf of Mexico.
There should be limits to the number and types of limitations that may proscribe the power of Government.
Gulliver may not be staked, immobile, to the ground, by Lilliputians, lest they ALL be washed away in the absence of his strength, employed in service to THEM, for THEIR benefit.
Has Gulliver made ANY attempt to disrupt the time-space continuum, by attempting to apply rules that were written, today, to events that happened, yesterday?
In Pennsylvania, I mean.
Has Gulliver ignored the story of Davy Crockett and Farmer Bunce, which was, at one time, "required reading", in the public schools?
Has Gulliver tried to push his own work off, onto other backs of shorter stature and lesser strength, saying, "It doesn't matter, who does it," and, "'Whatever you say you want, today' is what's always been ACTUALLY necessary, and what you have always expected Gulliver to deliver, on pain of SEVERE chastisement, should he fail"?
Please forward this "heads-up" to your respective chiefs-of-staff, in order that they can assign tasks, as appropriate.
Be prepared to properly answer the suggestion that "fracking" causes earthquakes [citing events in Oklahoma as evidence].
Preliminary "Talking Points" on this topic should be available to the Governor, and to the leadership of both Houses of the Legislature, by COB, 17-March-2017. ["Talking Points" should include contact information for each Agency --COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE, ONLY, NOT THE FRONT-LINE STAFFER-- that employs the "expert" who would answer further questions related to each "talking point". Those Communications Offices (and, through them, the "experts") should be available to receive phone calls related to this topic, over the weekend, depending upon how "hot" this topic turns out to be.]
URLs are included, below, as references, if needed.
For now, however:
1) the Executive Branch Agency/Agencies should be notified, that have any oversight responsibility for:
a) energy extraction in Pennsylvania;
b) the environment, including water quality, in Pennsylvania;
c) civil engineering [assessment of likelihood of dam-, lock, or bridge collapses, as a result of earthquakes of a magnitude of 6 or less], in Pennsylvania];
d) the public- and private-property-insurance industries;
e) the National Guard's emergency-preparedness infrastructure; and
f) inter-State relations, especially related to Pennsylvania's collaborations with other States, related to the Ohio River and Chesapeake Bay watersheds, etc.
2) Especially with regard to civil-engineering assets [i.e., State infrastructure], what is the estimated dollar value of damage that is likely to be caused by such earthquakes as might be likely to happen, in Pennsylvania? [Budget Impact]
3) Especially with regard to flooding, fires, disruption of energy and food/drinking-water to eastern Pennsylvania, etc., how prepared is Pennsylvania, both as an entity and as a federated union of localities and regions, to handle an earthquake of magnitude 6 or less, within Pennsylvania? Does that level of preparedness remain consistent, regardless of the month in which such an earthquake might occur? [Budget Impact]
4) Etc., etc., etc.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Sincerely,
Larry Powers
Philadelphia
P.S.: I did not send this e-mail to the Governor's office, for the reason that a Web-form is required, now. While I understand the reasoning behind the decision to make that switch, the result is that you receive this e-mail, and he does not.
I am not willing to climb Mount Everest, today, nor even Mount Killimanjaro, in order to deliver a message that I believe to contain merit. And, some days, limbing even Mount Tabor
URLs Related to State Government of Oklahoma declaring that "fracking" causes earthquakes:
1) Frequently-Asked Questions, RE: Fracking and Earthquakes
Pennsylvania is NOT, apparently, a "federated union of localities and regions"! Pennsylvania existed, before the Counties and Cities did; and the Counties and Cities were created within Pennsylvania, rather than a set of pre-existing localities and regions east of Lake Erie and west of the Delaware River uniting, to form Pennsylvania.
2) TYPO
----------
ORIGINAL: I am not willing to climb Mount Everest, today, nor even Mount Killimanjaro, in order to deliver a message that I believe to contain merit. And, some days, limbing even Mount Tabor
CORRECTION: I am not willing to climb Mount Everest, today, nor even Mount Killimanjaro, in order to deliver a message that I believe to contain the merit that I believe this email contains (because I don't think I should have to, since I believe that merit to be so intuitively obvious, to anyone who would hope to hold the job of receiving and responding to this email, that they would, THEMSELVES feel it necessary, to ensure that "the right people" see it). And, some days, to be honest, even climbing Mount Tabor --a hike that is reputed to be even easier and less strenuous than walking to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro is said to be-- is beyond my capabilities.
[i.e., "This message is important; but, I am not 'the Youth of Marathon', who raced, on foot, from the Bay of Marathon to ancient Athens, to warn the Government that the Persians were invading.
The Commonwealth, surely, already employs people whose job it is, to read and respond to 'current events'. They probably already know.
I'm simply 'making sure that nothing falls through the cracks', since the original source of this story is 'other than the major, daily newspapers, in Pennsylvania', and I don't know where the State Government looks, for 'current-event' information."]
This is very sad day for me. A true conservative as I define myself to favor less government's oversight and regulations in all the 5 aspects of life, private and public.
After reading this it will be hard to read the JBS ratings.
I've done a little "legislation analysis", myself; and have not only read and understood the words that were included in specific pieces of legislation, but have evaluated that wording in the context of "current events", also.
So, I urge the members of the Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus --and, indeed, ALL Members of ALL Legislatures-- to be prepared, IN THEIR OWN WORDS [and WITHOUT THE AID of whatever "notes" they might have, regarding any "endorsements" of "their (the Legislator's)" positions and votes on specific Legislation], to:
1) explain their own positions and votes, on individual pieces of Legislation; and to
2) characterize those positions and votes in terms of those individual Legislators' own, guiding principles, thoughts, and world-views.
EXAMPLE: The Institute for Legislative Analysis appears to have characterized PA House Bill #2451 (2022 Session) as a "Limited Government" Bill, with "Support" of that Bill [i.e., "voting for that Bill"] being considered to be a "Limited Government" position.
Why? The Institute for Legislative Analysis' "analysis" reads as follows:
"Support is the Limited Government Position as while there is a role for government to protect the river and surrounding landowners from direct and significant environmental threats, an outright ban on fracking represents an example of significant government overreach. A ban on fracking [by the Delaware River Basin Commission] not only infringes on property rights but subjects Americans to unnecessarily high energy prices."
Nowhere within that above-quoted analysis is any mention of the numerous earthquakes that occurred, in Oklahoma, as a direct result of wastewater-disposal methods used as part of the "fracking" process.
Thus, nowhere within that analysis is any mention of the likelihood that the use of "fracking", within Pennsylvania, might CAUSE EARTHQUAKES TO HAPPEN, WITHIN PENNSYLVANIA.
[NOTE: I am prepared to produce copies of emails that I sent, to the Office of the Governor [Wolf], proposing a strategy that the Executive Branch might use, to demonstrate, to the public, that the Commonwealth had not only evaluated the risks,...
...not only to Pennsylvania's own civil-engineering infrastructure, but to such facilities as Pennsylvanians might rely upon, that were owned and operated by the Federal Government and/or by neighboring States, also,...
...that might be affected by any EARTHQUAKES that had might be induced, within Pennsylvania, as a direct result of "fracking";...
...but that, indeed, the Government of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had "laid the groundwork" for a speedy and EFFECTIVE response to any earthquakes as might, in fact, occur, also.]
The Institute for Legislative Analysis' "analysis" of House Bill #2451 (2022 Session) acknowledges that...
"there is a role for government to protect the river and surrounding landowners from direct and significant environmental threats."
Yet, to deprive the DRBC of the authority to ban "fracking", outright, would remove whatever incentive that any private-sector or public-sector individual or group might have, to comply with DRBC instructions, should begging, pleading, and other strategies of "moral suasion" prove insufficient.
The phrase "Limited Government" should NOT be understood to equate to "Hamstrung Government", nor to "Government by Prayer and Supplication to Private-Sector and Public-Sector Groups and Individuals As If Such Persons and Groups Were Gods (Whether 'Benevolent' or Otherwise)".
I've read of coal-mines, in other States, whose bankrupt former owner/operators are long-departed, and whose current "owner-of-record" has no means of preventing toxic, chemical-laden ground-water from spilling out of those mines and into the Ohio River, thence to the Mississippi, Memphis, St. Louis, New Orleans, and the Gulf of Mexico.
There should be limits to the number and types of limitations that may proscribe the power of Government.
Gulliver may not be staked, immobile, to the ground, by Lilliputians, lest they ALL be washed away in the absence of his strength, employed in service to THEM, for THEIR benefit.
Has Gulliver made ANY attempt to disrupt the time-space continuum, by attempting to apply rules that were written, today, to events that happened, yesterday?
In Pennsylvania, I mean.
Has Gulliver ignored the story of Davy Crockett and Farmer Bunce, which was, at one time, "required reading", in the public schools?
Has Gulliver tried to push his own work off, onto other backs of shorter stature and lesser strength, saying, "It doesn't matter, who does it," and, "'Whatever you say you want, today' is what's always been ACTUALLY necessary, and what you have always expected Gulliver to deliver, on pain of SEVERE chastisement, should he fail"?
Here is a "copy/paste" that includes the version of the email that I mentioned, in the above comment, about "fracking"-related earthquakes,...
...that I sent to the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House, and to the Majority- and Minority Leaders of the Pennsylvania Senate, in 2017.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Larry Powers <la...@gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, January 18, 2018
Subject: More on Distribution of Info, Throughout Legislature
To: "ra...@whyy.org" <ra...@whyy.org>
Did this get distributed?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Larry Powers" <la...@gmail.com (mailto:la...@gmail.com)>
Date: Mar 4, 2017 11:40 AM
Subject: FRACKING -- Staff Attn. Req'd. ("Talking Points"), RE: State of Oklahoma Says Fracking Causes Earthquakes?
To: <jc...@pasen.gov (mailto:jc...@pasen.gov)>, <mt...@pahousegop.com (mailto:mt...@pahousegop.com)>
Cc: <co...@pasenate.com (mailto:co...@pasenate.com)>, <fa...@pasenate.com (mailto:fa...@pasenate.com)>
Good morning:
Please forward this "heads-up" to your respective chiefs-of-staff, in order that they can assign tasks, as appropriate.
Be prepared to properly answer the suggestion that "fracking" causes earthquakes [citing events in Oklahoma as evidence].
Preliminary "Talking Points" on this topic should be available to the Governor, and to the leadership of both Houses of the Legislature, by COB, 17-March-2017. ["Talking Points" should include contact information for each Agency --COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE, ONLY, NOT THE FRONT-LINE STAFFER-- that employs the "expert" who would answer further questions related to each "talking point". Those Communications Offices (and, through them, the "experts") should be available to receive phone calls related to this topic, over the weekend, depending upon how "hot" this topic turns out to be.]
URLs are included, below, as references, if needed.
For now, however:
1) the Executive Branch Agency/Agencies should be notified, that have any oversight responsibility for:
a) energy extraction in Pennsylvania;
b) the environment, including water quality, in Pennsylvania;
c) civil engineering [assessment of likelihood of dam-, lock, or bridge collapses, as a result of earthquakes of a magnitude of 6 or less], in Pennsylvania];
d) the public- and private-property-insurance industries;
e) the National Guard's emergency-preparedness infrastructure; and
f) inter-State relations, especially related to Pennsylvania's collaborations with other States, related to the Ohio River and Chesapeake Bay watersheds, etc.
2) Especially with regard to civil-engineering assets [i.e., State infrastructure], what is the estimated dollar value of damage that is likely to be caused by such earthquakes as might be likely to happen, in Pennsylvania? [Budget Impact]
3) Especially with regard to flooding, fires, disruption of energy and food/drinking-water to eastern Pennsylvania, etc., how prepared is Pennsylvania, both as an entity and as a federated union of localities and regions, to handle an earthquake of magnitude 6 or less, within Pennsylvania? Does that level of preparedness remain consistent, regardless of the month in which such an earthquake might occur? [Budget Impact]
4) Etc., etc., etc.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Sincerely,
Larry Powers
Philadelphia
P.S.: I did not send this e-mail to the Governor's office, for the reason that a Web-form is required, now. While I understand the reasoning behind the decision to make that switch, the result is that you receive this e-mail, and he does not.
I am not willing to climb Mount Everest, today, nor even Mount Killimanjaro, in order to deliver a message that I believe to contain merit. And, some days, limbing even Mount Tabor
URLs Related to State Government of Oklahoma declaring that "fracking" causes earthquakes:
1) Frequently-Asked Questions, RE: Fracking and Earthquakes
Https://earthquakes.ok.gov/faqs (https://earthquakes.ok.gov/faqs)
2) Oklahoma Corporation Commission
www.occeweb.com (http://www.occeweb.com/)
[No WHOIS search has been run on this domain. Trustworthiness level unknown. Not a ".gov" domain.]
3) "...the state [of Oklahoma] has said [that some earthquakes that have occurred, in that State] are tied to disposal of wastewater from fracking."
[I include this link, beca
use it is circulating on Facebook; as such, it seems likely to arouse the sort of popular response that generates newspaper articles.]
www.whitewolfpack.com/2017/03/oklahoma-native-american-tribe-sues.html (http://www.whitewolfpack.com/2017/03/oklahoma-native-american-tribe-sues.html)
NOTE: TYPOS AND CONCEPTUAL ERRORS ON MY PART
======================
1) CONCEPTUAL ERROR
--------------------------
Pennsylvania is NOT, apparently, a "federated union of localities and regions"! Pennsylvania existed, before the Counties and Cities did; and the Counties and Cities were created within Pennsylvania, rather than a set of pre-existing localities and regions east of Lake Erie and west of the Delaware River uniting, to form Pennsylvania.
2) TYPO
----------
ORIGINAL: I am not willing to climb Mount Everest, today, nor even Mount Killimanjaro, in order to deliver a message that I believe to contain merit. And, some days, limbing even Mount Tabor
CORRECTION: I am not willing to climb Mount Everest, today, nor even Mount Killimanjaro, in order to deliver a message that I believe to contain the merit that I believe this email contains (because I don't think I should have to, since I believe that merit to be so intuitively obvious, to anyone who would hope to hold the job of receiving and responding to this email, that they would, THEMSELVES feel it necessary, to ensure that "the right people" see it). And, some days, to be honest, even climbing Mount Tabor --a hike that is reputed to be even easier and less strenuous than walking to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro is said to be-- is beyond my capabilities.
[i.e., "This message is important; but, I am not 'the Youth of Marathon', who raced, on foot, from the Bay of Marathon to ancient Athens, to warn the Government that the Persians were invading.
The Commonwealth, surely, already employs people whose job it is, to read and respond to 'current events'. They probably already know.
I'm simply 'making sure that nothing falls through the cracks', since the original source of this story is 'other than the major, daily newspapers, in Pennsylvania', and I don't know where the State Government looks, for 'current-event' information."]
This is very sad day for me. A true conservative as I define myself to favor less government's oversight and regulations in all the 5 aspects of life, private and public.
After reading this it will be hard to read the JBS ratings.