Explaining the 2014 Elections

As we saw in 2010, these mid-termed elections are critical. Far more important than Presidential ones.  It really matters little who the president is these days, as long as the House stops everything he wants from going forward, and the Senate and the President stop everything the House wants done. We get nothing.

Anyone who says “my way or the highway” has to go…   When three people have to agree to get something done, and one person will not agree on anything with the other two,… you get the Congress of  the past 4 years…  and expressed in action by a House that believes plunging the world into repeated financial crises, and shutting down government to get concessions, is the only way to go…

Therefore, they have to go….

Get it?

Why The East Coast Was Originally Closed For Oil Drilling

A.  This is no redneck riviera.  112,642,503 (36% of the country’s total population) live in states bordering the Eastern Seaboard.

B.  This is Hurricane Alley.  Imagine Sandy with massive BP oil spills attached.

C.  The Gulf Stream is a major climate modifier, and environmental life line. Spills get carried to Europe.

There is one good thing.  It could create several turnovers in Congressional districts in the south from being Republican over to Democrat.  If done, and should the Congress become democratic with super majorities in both houses, the overall benefit to America will outweigh the cost…

Still, it is one hell of a cost.

 

What The TDC Proposal Cost Delaware

Here is what I got so far…

Newark: $345,000 legal fees
Newark: $12,000 environmental consultant’s analysis
New Castle County: $20,000 in study fees on the proposal

As for union threats:

Newark had a proposal to get rid of its alderman court.
University of Delaware had a proposal to strip $3 million away in funding.

But those were threats and never came about….

But…. the point is, that because the The Data Center tried to sneak one past the citizens of this state, particularly the municipality of Newark (remember the Mayoral election?)… there will now be less money going into the Newark economy. Something now will not be happen, that very well could have been…

And that is such a tragic waste. Far more than the copious amounts of lost profits now, NOT, coming from the brownfields of Chrysler…

But, now, we can make room for another project there, one which will do all the same great things, without raising the cancer rates or noise levels among its potential new neighbors….

The Data Center Loses Ground, Literally

It lost the ground it was to be built upon. Completely outside the political spectrum, the University of Delaware decided in its own best interest, that the data center was too much of a problem.

It pulled the lease.

The data center can still go forward…. It just now needs another piece of ground…. But for now though, Newark residents will not die an earlier death.

That is something worth celebrating….

It is time to look forward into building a fusion reaction research center in that same spot…. courtesy of everyone’s friend, the Federal Government….

Using All of His Bluster, Cause His Facts Don’t Pass the Muster…..

Ken Grant, formerly with the Caesar Rodney Institute, a Koch Brothers’ mouthpiece, is now spokesperson for the TDC (The “Data” Center)…  Granted, one would think also a former employee of AnalTech, would be technically more anal about throwing around facts.  At least one would expect a lot less bluster…

Here is his take in the News Journal…. 

If you should choose to read it, you will find it to be mostly a lambasting of Newarks’ citizens and very little defense of the Data Center…  Very little.  Reminds one of when Caesar Rodney declared global warming was a hoax. It would attack all the scientific knowledge in the world, because it found one glacier out of 400,000 that was growing….   Of course in the readers head would pop this question… But what about the other 399,999?  But the Caesar Rodney Institute was simply too unconcerned with 399,999 other pieces of evidence to even care…

Anyway…  back to what he said….

He said:  there are 4000 CHP’s scattered across the US… Here is the data sheet he pulled up to write his piece….. (pdf)

Here are his 4000 units.   Here is what he doesn’t show…

Any little business that has a generator that also produces heat is included in his file.  Even the original presentation made to the Newark zoning commission, that the data center would need an auxiliary power source like one might find on an IKEA, is included on the map….  I think it would be safe to assume that were such a small power plant going in at the Data Center, there would be no controversy as we speak…

The problem is the size… Ken Grant in his op-ed makes no mention of his size…   The difference in size is like you took the penises of 5 horses, sewed them together and then attached that to a person…  Saying he has a penis, so does every male… is disingenuous and dishonest…  You are technically correct he has a penis… But …. who would want him in an arranged marriage with their daughter?

It may be true there are 8 people in Manhattan with penises.  Bet none of them spew 10 horse testicle’s full of discharge, do they?

The one he touts in Austin is 52-75 MW. The award winning Texas A and M, is a paltry 60MW.  Delaware will host a 248 MW generator.

Size does matter….

Let us talk water…..   At minimum, the Christina River flows 6 cubic feet per second.  The data center will use  ~34.7 gallons per second (~3 million gal/day). There are 7.48 gallons per cubic foot.  Rounding out the conversion, the data center will use 4.64 cubic feet per second of water flow out of the 6 cubic feet per second one usually finds every August.   Obviously 1.36 cubic feet are left to fulfill all the needs downstream…  The flow levels back in 2003 would leave dry river bed.

That is just not right. And Ken Grant (of course) makes no mention of that….

Let us talk air quality.  Currently there is no radon in the air over Newark and Northern Delaware.  There will be a lot. Radon as you know, kills. Currently there are no particles raining down on Newark Proper.  These particles cause cancer… There will be a lot.. So these people that Ken Grant dismisses will be wheezing, coughing, hacking, and spitting up blood.

It is estimated that now after facts have matriculated into the community of Newark proper, that 98% of its residents are against the power plant.  One is certain, that as these health facts get matriculated as well, that would be a guaranteed total…. For who wants to die a needless painful death?

So when Ken Grant calls 98% of Newark’s citizens who are sincerely worried about dying prematurely, ” a small group of very sincere but very wrong people”, perhaps he is correct in his assumption but just needs to turn that designation…  the other way around…..

It is very tiny minority of the the Koch Brothers’ minions who deserve the ridicule and derision, not normal hard working Americans, who loved Newark so much, they bought a home here…..

 

 

 

 

North Dakota Is Flaring Off 36% Of It’s Gas

Courtesy of NASA

This past month, 36% of  gas pulled out of the ground in North Dakota was wasted and went up as smoke.  That is more than one third of all gas pulled out of the ground.

The reason.  Profits.

“So while it’s profitable to capture the gas, it’s more profitable to drill the next oil well,” Logan testified. “So if you’re an oil company with a limited amount of money to spend — as they all are — it’s a somewhat rational short-term choice to say, ‘Well look, if I don’t have to capture that gas, I’d rather spend that money to drill another well.’”

“I’ll tell you why people flare: It’s cheap,” Troy Anderson, lead operator of a North Dakota gas-processing plant owned by Whiting Petroleum told The New York Times. “Pipelines are expensive: You have to maintain them. You need permits to build them. They are a pain.”This is why you need regulation.  The idiocy of throwing away one’s future gold because it gets in the way of you currently getting more gold,  is  easily grasped by those with common sense….

Energy is yesterday’s food.  Whereas during the Depression thousands of pigs were killed and buried in the Midwest to keep the cost high, while the cities were starving, today, it is energy that needs regulated to prevent that from occurring.  While propane was going up in smoke,  both North Dakota and South Dakota were suffering propane shortages due to the excessively cold winter….

If North Dakota simply had a state law that said no flaring, then companies would not flare, and a prescious resource would not be sent up to the stratosphere unused…..

Likewise when ever someone begins complaining about “too much regulation,”  perhaps the first thing we should question, should be his motives?…

The free market has stopped working in ways that benefit America.  As in 1932, we are due for a new reset…  Sooner is better than later.

What? Fed Now Says Gas Powered Electricity Is More Carcinogenic Than Coal Fired Power Plants? How?

I was done with my shopping at Acme, had picked up a bouquet of flowers, and saw the Blue Crab and ducked in to get some food to go…Heck, I didn’t feel like cooking…  I decided to pass upon driving through the new WSFS atm, and instead came straignt out of Suburban Shopping Center, got stuck at the light where the Soviet interference blocks out WDEL, and with the green, pulled straight ahead onto Rt.4 towards the Bob… I go up the rise that is the bridge, squeeze down to one lane, and look to my left at where the new power plant will be. thinking of course it would be way off in the corner by the railroad tracks… As I looked, it slowly dawned that it would be right at the corner, right next to the bridge i was on…  Holy Crap.

I would be directly under that smoke stack at least 4 times every day… Why would that concern me?  Because concentrations of the heaviest particles are thickest the closer one gets to the stack…  My open window or car vent would suck those in, and keep them in my car, for what? maybe a mile, or two?  I would be breathing lots of stuff that normally stays deep underground… Like lead.  Like cobalt, Like uranium, Like Radon. I know, as do you, that all it takes is one atom to get sucked into my lungs, bond with a cell tissue, and stay there, and I die of lung cancer.   Of course it could happen in Ohio, and since atoms never die, get blown from there over to Rehoboth Beach, and be hanging right above the ocean about an inch, right where I come up and gasp for air… and the same thing could happen… Therefore I have to look at probabilities.  My probability of dying from cancer is almost infinitely larger when I drive under the stack 4 times every day, or 28 times every week, or 1456 times at the minimum, every year I live in Newark…  Just imagine the probability from those living in Devon, less than 200 yards from the belching stack…

Belching, as in burping up lead, cobalt, antimony, uranium, cesium, strontium, radon,  Ever had to work with someone who had bad breath?  This would be infinitely worse….

Here is where you say… Wait!  But Jack Markell and Sam Latham all said that gas was cleaner than coal.  How does you headline fit in with your claims that gas is dirtier than coal….

Great question… Let us answer that with an entertaining example….  let us say there is a house up the street, shared by 4 young people, maybe they are in a band even…. But rumor is they smoke pot…   Now let us say, you rent one of your rooms out to Justin Beiber, and Lo, come to find out he smokes pot too…  but not that much…. Now, which of the two, is going to provide you the greatest opportunity to get high from second hand smoke:.  The reggae band 15 houses away, or Justin Beiber who crashes at your house when on breaks from his tour?

It’s the same way with carcinogens in pollution.  Coal plants are in Ohio.  This 248MW natural gas co-generation power plant, is 200 yard away….

The figures for mean damages per ton of emissions are higher for natural gas plants than for coal plants because of the locations of the plants. If you think about it, a power plant located near an urban area will do more human damage than one located in the country, all other things being equal….

There can be no question.  The rate of death will jump in areas surrounding Newark if this power plant goes in.  Explaining it is cleaner than coal is irrelevant for there is no coal plant going in… The comparative factor must be against the status quo.  Right now, there is nothing polluting the air breathed by the citizens of the town of Newark. Soon there will be… and obviously as a result, more people and animals will die horrible, painful deaths than do now.  That is inevitable, and must be recognized, while at the same time, not blown out of perspective.

There are times when the benefits might be worth the risk of dying prematurely. WWII for example.  And not everyone will die early. Just those unlucky to breathe in the unlucky molecule, which today, doesn’t exist in Newark but when finished, will soon be belched out 24/7 right there by Route 4’s bridge over Amtrack..  Those in receivership will die, while the rest of us live on… The question stands: is this power plant worth dying for? Is the money being made for its investors, worth the copays our estate will fork over on our own terminal medical bills…

You say yes?  or was that a no, I heard?

Disadvanteges Of Gas Turbine Power Plants

• Cost is very high
• Less efficient than reciprocating engines at idle speed
• Longer startup than reciprocating engines
• Less responsive to changes in power demand compared with reciprocating engines
• Characteristic whine can be hard to suppress

Translated to a loud jet engine larger than that on planes, sitting on the Chrysler Site running 24/7….  once it gets turned on, it stays on until it breaks down.

Remember those sissy’s who lived in Brandywine Hundred who were always bitchin’ bout those planes coming into Philadelphia International?  At least they got breaks between planes…..

Power Plant Synopsis; Brief and To The Point

It is Newark’s decision.

They do not need to kow tow to the State of Delaware.
They do not need to kow tow to Govrenor Markell.
They do not need to kow tow to Alan Levin.
They do not need to kow tow to the Delaware Chamber of Commerce.
They do not need to kow tow to the University of Delaware.
They do not need to kow tow to the AFL-CIO.
They do not need to kow tow to the DE Building & Construction Trades Council.
They do not need to kow tow to the editorial board of the Wilmington News Journal.
They do not need to kow tow to Al Mascitti on WDEL’s Morning with Al Mascitti.
They do not need to kow tow to Polly Sierer new mayor of Newark.
They do not need to kow tow to Vince D’Anna, head of the mysterious Polly Sierer PAC….

Their responsibility is strictly to those mostly silent residents living within the Newark’s City limits.

Those people who have to put up with outlandish noise.
Those people who have to breathe 64,482,304 Bq’s of radon over today’s 10 Bq’s of radon PER HOUR falling down across their cars, lawns, and pets across the town.
Those people who will die of lung cancer over the next 75 years… because of this decision……

That is who you are responsible to… Them and only them. If the residents of Newark are going to be taking a bullet for someone… at the end of 75 years, do any of the above rate high enough to be granted such an honor?

Why When You Die, You Will Still Be Proud You Become An Activist Tonight….

I am going to try and make the case why you need to change you plans and show up  in front of the Newark Municipal Building at 220 South Main St. Newark, DE at 5 pm….

There will be a candlelight vigil to demonstrate against the potential installation of the Newark Power Plant.

I should probably start by saying if you live anywhere in Northern Delaware or South New Jersey, this may be the most important event controlling you life for the rest of its time here on earth.

This decision affects every breath of air you will take.  This decision will decide how healthy your old age will be.  This decision will decide how long your children will live.  This decision will decide whether your pets live and die, cancer free…

There are very few things we actually get to weigh in on that have such a profound impact upon our existence….  Politics come and go, and usually don’t kill us.  Jobs come and go and usually don’t kill us. In-laws come and go and usually don’t kill us.

But chemicals, many of them radioactive, kill us…  There is undeniable proof that they do….  Despite attempts to wash them under our stream of consciousness, while we are distracted by other things, they enter our body’s cells, change the genetic makeup, and those cells then start producing cancerous versions of their new genetic makeup….

The only way to prevent that process is to never start it.

The power plant burns natural gas.  That natural gas contains elements from the earth.  Most elements are poisonous to life. Arsenic, Radon, Lead, Uranium, will be sucked in every breath you take…

Enough scaring you.  Just wanted to tell you why this was important.

Many things in life we have no control over.  Our boss tells us to go to Delaware we go to Delaware.  We have a child, we accept how it comes out.  A chemical plant dumped residue into the ground before we were born, we live around it.

It is rare when we have a chance to change our life.  We have one chance and that is tonight.

The City of Newark must change the zoning underneath that power plant for it to be built.  They are deciding now.   They want to do the right decision.  Just like you, if you were in their place, would also want to do the right decision.

If they hear from the Governor, the Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street, the Labor Unions of the Building Trades, the state’s own DNREC, and hear nothing from you, their decision will be obvious.  Just like yours would be in that position.  Look at all these people you would say, who need this to go forward and look at all the good going forward would do.  And look how only a very few people care about stopping it.  Obviously if I jump in front of the flying bus, for the sake of a handful of people, i’m getting run over……

But jumping in front of a bus to keep it from wallowing through a gigantic crowd of people is different ballgame.  Instead of being the “disruptor” of progress, you have become the “Protector” of “the people.”  All of us would like to be known as the protector of the people, and so would those elected to govern Newark.

We just have to give them the reason they need.  We have to show up.  If we don’t show up tonight…. , the power plant gets built.  Toxic chemicals start falling on our lawns, cars and pets,

If we suffer the complete inconvenience to our schedules and do show, and show up in large enough numbers, we will stop the zone change and thereby stop the power plant….

WE need more than 10, 20, 30, or 40…. We need 1000’s  … If you don’t show, it won’t happen…. If you do show, it may still happen, but you could say, that when Newark needed its finest to show, you were there…..

And win or lose, that is what is most important about being an activist….  Showing that it matters to you….

You may choose to slough if off with “oh, it’s raining.  it’s cold.  it’s flu- season”…..  but fast forward to 10 years hence, you lying almost dead hooked up to monitors so the staff knows whether they can shuck your corpse out to replace you with another body,….

You could have been home, holding your grandkids, making them dinner, reading them books, if you had only showed up tonight, 5pm on S. Main Street (Old Elkton Road) in Newark to show those fine people on Newark’s City Council, that yes, this is important to you….

It is tonight.  Change your plans and go…..