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August 03, 2011 03:41 PM UTC

Wednesday Open Thread

  • 65 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“All things are subject to interpretation; whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.”

–Friedrich Nietzsche  

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65 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

  1. Sometimes I don’t understand him at all. If he doesn’t think there’s a problem why propose them at all?

    DENVER, Colorado – Gov. John Hickenlooper proposed Tuesday that energy companies operating in his state be required to publicly disclose the ingredients of the fluids they inject into the ground to extract more oil and gas, even though he said there is almost no chance the fluids are contaminating water wells.

    http://www.postindependent.com…

    His answer to my question:

    Disclosing the contents would help build public trust in the industry, said Hickenlooper, a Democrat and former petroleum geologist.

    Diary anyone?

    1. than most other states. I would guess Hick is attempting to quiet public fears by suggesting the extent of our regulation be more apparent.

        1. I am currently working at the Oil & Gas Conservation Commission and spend large parts of my day with forms recording in excruciating detail what is being injected into wells.

          1. and please understand I’m just asking to know:

            1)  your commission reviews what Halliburton & others submit but do we regulate what they use in fracking?  Are there any fluids that we ban?  

            2)  does your commission track what specific fluids are used in specific fracked wells?  Are does Halliburton (et al) supply a list of all possible ingredients without itemizing specific uses/applications?

            3)  Your documentation only lists Halliburton’s fluid disclosure — are they the only ones fracking in CO?  PA lists over 85 distinct fluids/chems used — so CO’s list seems handed to them by industry leader rather than an independent investigation.  You trust Halliburton to tell the truth?    

            4)  You, admittedly, are filing fracking fluid disclosures but who is verifiying, inspecting, enforcing the regs?  How many cases of improper fluid use or regulation infractions have been filed?  

            1. However, it should all be on the website: http://www.colorado.gov/cogcc

              My job there is very limited (data entry) and I am only a temp so I don’t know all the ins and outs. It just seems to me there is a lot of regulation in Colorado to me, and that is as it should be.

              If there is need for more, than I would be interested in the details.

            2. 1) I asked, and yes there several fracing fluids not permitted for use in Colorado. It was a rather lengthy list. That info in on the website.

              2) we do track what goes into specifc well. I know from doing the data entry on these forms that a 7.5% HCL solution is very popular to use. On the COGCC’s website, each well has documents associated with that well attached to the record so you can read if a well was fraced and what was used to frac it.

              3) The most detailed info about what is used for fracing actually comes from the operaters, not service providers like Halliburton. So when we get that data is typically from companies like Noble, Encana, Williams, etc.

              4) The COGCC has a rather large staff of engineers, field inspectors and environmental inspectors who enforce the regulations. The Commissioners are almost in a pseudo-judiciary role. They make the determination if an infraction has happened and the appropriate punishment as well as issue orders for corrective action. Everything they decide is public info and available on the website.

              Having said all of that, I will be the first to state the Commission’s website is nto the most user friendly. I have worked here for 5 months now and I still have trouble finding things there.

              1. now to keep you from getting in any trouble maybe ya ought not to post on a blog while on the job … especially a gubment job.  

                Especially at a gubment job and with your own name … (or an odd AKA to sign with).

    2. Because that proposal would suggest that he is actually acknowledging that we do have a problem of magnitude that needs addressing.

      And then I read his reply to you and just come away totally confused.  

    3. He’s looking to get us full disclosure and doing so with the O&G industry not fighting it. Very well done.

      As to the benefit, it gives us the ability to truly determine if the material is safe. And it gives the people who come in touch with it the ability to handle it safely.

      We may also find some formulas not being used anymore here once this is required.

  2. “Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state wants to live at the expense of everyone.”Frederic Bastiat

    2. If only your resistance to socialism was directed at an actual socialist.

      The Democratic party doesn’t want socialism.

      I don’t want socialism.

      Sure, there are confused far, far lefties who would welcome socialism.  Just as there are the crazy on the far right who would welcome fascism.

      When is it appropriate to raise taxes?

      What should gov’t do?

      Seriously- you don’t want gov’t to do anything, or anything substantive or restrictive to level the playing field, then we return tot he era of robber barons and vertically integrated corporate monopolists.

      What’s in fracking fluid?  They don’t have to tell.

      What’s in insecticide? they don’t have to tell.

      That factory emits a lot of pollution – up to them to decide if or whether they want to do anything about it.

      Your opposition is annoying because it’s simplistic and cutesy (and therefore dangerous) and it assumes a straw man not in evidence.

    3. “Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state.”

      Does this include the big investment banks, AIG, GM, Chrysler, et al (otherwise known as the “too big to fail crowd”) ?

      The answer is obvious…..

    4. Speaking of herbs, the basil in the garden is looking good.  Last year I had sweet and Thai, and made a huge bunch of Pesto before the first freeze.  This year it was coming in weak, getting fried by the sun, because I have fewer tomatoes around it.  I put a tomato cage wrapped in cheesecloth above it, and it has flourished.  I’ve only used it for drinks so far in a bunch of cool cucmber martinis, and some Thai Martinis I concocted.

      Question.  

      Does pinching off the flower buds get you more growth?  I do it because it makes sense, but am I stressing the plant too much?

      Early Girls are 6’6″ and about to yield the first bunch of ripe fruit.  Better Boys are about a week and a foot behind but with like 25 pounds of fruit on it.  Heirloom cherries and “volunteer” yellow pears are days away.

      1. Yes, pinch off the flower buds because they are draining the plant and moving into reproduction growth instead of basil growth. It’s more stressful for the plant to continue producing flowers.

      2. Pinch the buds, it will force more production into new leaves and new auxillary stems.  

        (Like teenage boys, once almost any plant starts concerning itself with reproduction, vital productive forces are diminished . . .)

      4. I planted several peas, but got only one plant. I harvested in early July, and the plant is now dead per its normal cycle.

        I planted potatoes in late March, and have begun harvesting them now. (They’re ready to go when the plant dies.) I’ve gotten about 7 pounds of Yukon golds from five plants, ranging from a few marble-sized ones to a one pound behemoth. Tonight, I dig up the red potatoes (also five plants).

        My June crops included turnips (which tasted bitter – probably left in the ground too long), mustard greens, butterhead lettuce, and radishes (nice, but I’m not really a radish fan – gave most of them away, and resolved to plant more carrots in their place next year). Speaking of carrots, I got far fewer plants than I was expecting from two different plantings. Need to see if there’s something I’m doing wrong when I plant.

        I had started my own tomatoes indoors in late February; they are now about six feet tall. I’ve been getting ripe cherries for about a week, and had a couple of San Marzanos that were looking good – til something partially ate them. (Maybe the chickens? I had let them in so they could get the grasshoppers). The others (grape and beefsteak) are coming along, although the beefsteak is the shortest and at one point the leaves started curling up, like it wasn’t getting enough water. Not sure what was up with that.

        I’ve got onions and leeks, carrots and beets, celery and broccoli all coming along.

        Soon it will be time to do some late planting for fall. More root and leafy veggies that like cool weather, including parsnips which I plan to leave in the ground over winter – this allegedly breaks down the starches into sugars, for a tastier veg.

        2. I had a mouse that was eating my almost ripe tomatoes last year.  You could see the claw marks on either side of the divot he ate in the bottom of the tomato.

          I set a trap, and after two nights or so I had eliminated him from the gene pool. Fortunately the tomato eating trait was not widely distributed among his kin.

          I want to grow Mirai sweet corn but haven’t managed it yet.  I tried last year, and got just enough of a taste (~20 kernels) to know it was worth the effort.  Next time I’ll start them indoors to get a head start.

        3. This is a serious question.  We are plagued with something called “volves”…a mole like creature that has tunneled under the garden and eats roots and then plants topple.

          Have you ever death with this critters.  And if so, do you have any suggestions?

          Thanks.

          2. I’m pretty sure I don’t have them. The wild critters in my area include rabbits (which I’ve only ever seen once anywhere near my yard – usually I have to go 1/3 mile to the west, where I see them all the time), and skunks (which I see right in my yard frequently, though not yet in the fenced garden – doesn’t mean they haven’t been in there, though). We also get foxes and coyotes, but they’re carnivores.

            I kept the hens out of the garden for a few days, and haven’t seen any more damage, so I think I know who was eating the tomatoes.

        4. But only when they’re ripe.  They don’t like the green ones.

          I had to put up a 4 foot construction fence around the tomatoes this year.

          They also eat the apricots that fall over the fence from my neighbor’s tree.  Unfortunately we had a late freeze and no apricots anywhere in the valley this year.

          1. Had one last Palisade peach that was so ripe it was falling apart. Dear God, that was incredible, Ralph. Can’t figure out for the life of me why that recipe hasn’t caught on over there–seems the perfect blend of two thriving industries.

            Anyway, thanks much for that one.  

          2. that tomatoes didn’t do well with you. Or did I imagine it? (It was when you were talking about ramapo tomatoes.) Anyway, hope they’re doing well this year.

            1. Especially the Ramapos.

              Problem last year was that Rutgers lost my seed order and I didn’t get my seeds until April.  The plants got a late start.

              This year I got my seeds in February.

              We also tilled in a couple of bales of peat moss.  They like acidic soils.

              We ate our first Ramapos last week.  They were excellent–every bit as sweet as I remember them.  And no cardboard “bred for shipping, not for eating” texture.

              The Romas are doing well too, just not getting red yet.

              1. Also glad to hear that your tomatoes taste as good here as they do back home. I was skeptical that just growing in Jersey made them good. I’ll try those tomatoes out next year.

      1. There’s colors on the street

        Red, white and blue

        People shufflin’ their feet

        People sleepin’ in their shoes

        But there’s a warnin’ sign

        on the road ahead

        There’s a lot of people sayin’

        we’d be better off dead

        Don’t feel like Satan,

        but I am to them

        So I try to forget it,

        any way I can.

        Keep on rockin’ in the free world.

        1. That is ridiculous – he can have sex with another man as long as he sings about having sex with women. What hypocrisy – you leave me speechless!

          2. and is currently being assimilated through various methods of torture and mind control into the Republican Party. We must be supportive.

            We only have two options here:

            A. Stage an intervention

            or

            B. Raise some money to buy his freedom. (Send all checks and cash directly to me–I’ll spring him as soon as I get back from my fully paid for on your dime, European vacation.)

  4. Jan.- March growth at 0.4%

    Apr. – June growth at 1.3 %

    Unemployment rate remains stuck above 9%

    Consumer spending down .2% in June, first downward numbers in 20 months

    Factory orders down

    Housing inventory at 4 million units ( 2.5 million in “normal” market), with 4.5 million more units in the “shadow inventory” ( loans in foreclosure or 90 days delinquent)

    Growth rate needs to be 4% to make significant reduction in the unemployment rate, it’s just not happening.

    With the deficit deal, no more stimulus will be injected into the economy, in fact less with budget cuts.

    “It’s the economy, stupid”

      1. The only reason it seems like deficit reduction hurts the economy is because TRUE balanced budgets have never been tried. What we should do is

        1) cut tax rates to zero

        2) increase the military budget

        and if that doesn’t reduce the deficit the first time, keep trying until it does.

    2. According to an Economic Policy Institute report tweeted by Arianna Huffington, the initial impact of the deficit deal could lead to 1,822,000 fewer jobs in 2012, and slash GDP by -1.5%.

      When added to the current Q2 2011 GDP growth of 1.3%, the result is negative (-.2% GDP growth) which is recessionary.

      http://www.epi.org/analysis_an…

      And Robert Reich argues the new deficit deal effectively blocks any economic recovery for the next two years.

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

      The stock and bond markets are signalling as much.

  5. Senator Bennet Townhall

    11:00am – 12:00pm

    (Doors open at 10:45am)

    Tivoli Student Union

    Baerresen Ballroom – Third Floor

    900 Auraria Parkway

    Denver, CO  80204

    I was gonna -but I have actual work to do.

  6. 1) Global warming is a myth.

    2) But even if it’s really happening, it’s no big deal.

    3) But even if it might be a big deal, it’s naturally occuring and has nothing to do with human activity.

    4) But even if it might have something to do with us, it’s too expensive to do anything about it.  And besides it’s a myth.

    There five solid arguments against any regulation on CO2 or other emissions.

  7. Lamborn’s “tarbaby comment” just made The View’s discussion roundtable and a heated one at that.

    His gaffe is just the gift that keeps on giving.  

  9. Where are the libertarians when you need them.

    STOCKHOLM (AP) – A Swedish man who was arrested after trying to split atoms in his kitchen said Wednesday he was only doing it as a hobby.

    Richard Handl told The Associated Press that he had the radioactive elements radium, americium and uranium in his apartment in southern Sweden when police showed up and arrested him on charges of unauthorized possession of nuclear material.

    The 31-year-old Handl said he had tried for months to set up a nuclear reactor at home and kept a blog about his experiments, describing how he created a small meltdown on his stove.

    Only later did he realize it might not be legal and sent a question to Sweden’s Radiation Authority, which answered by sending the police.

    From the AP

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