I am appalled by two things this morning: A post to this blog by my favorite Troll, and the results of a survey taken by School District 51.
Troll first. There is a member of the Tea Party who seems to believe that he is well informed on issues. I don’t know much about this individual, other than he is angry, doesn’t know how to string a coherent thought together into a sentence, is incapable of articulating a logical argument, and is misinformed about all manner of things. His post yesterday was about the new Western Colorado Congress of Mesa County website. He calls it a “victim” website. A website that posts the actual oil and gas regulations and all manner of news articles on topics involving human health is the opposite of a “victim” website—not that I’m sure what he means by “victim” website.
How can someone, who is informed about opportunities to express their opinion during agency open comment periods, be a victim? Federal agencies, by law, must hold public hearings on new regulations before implementing those rules. That is the essence of “for the people, by the people.” The people get to weigh in before any regulation is published or enforced. The Western Colorado Congress of Mesa County gives people the tools they need in order to be informed on issues before commenting on them. It empowers people rather than victimizing them.
Kevin King, you should have actually read the Udall article before you assumed that fracking is safe. What Udall said is that it is safe IF wells are encased from top to bottom. An industry CEO is featured in a commercial (currently running every news cycle) stating that their wells are safe because they enclose them from top to bottom in steel and cement and the production zone is deep underground, with layers of impermeable rock between the zone and surface water. That particular company MAY do that on all wells. I know for a fact that Colorado’s regulations only require only a portion of a well to be fully encased. I learned that from a Williams Petroleum representative when I toured some of their rigs and other facilities near Rifle. It is expensive to encase a well top to bottom in cement and steel. With profit the prime motivator for all business, as it should be, how likely is it that exploration companies enclose wells top to bottom in Colorado when it is not required that they do so? The largest local company doesn’t. They told me so.
I want clean water. I don’t want to be a victim. I want regulations on how wells are completed along the Colorado River. I want a river teeming with fish, nourishing local foods and wildlife, and clean enough to swim or boat in. Kevin, your ignorance makes you the victim, not me.
Along the same lines of willful ignorance and victimhood, the Board of School District 51 was presented with the results of a survey of local residents. Because of all of the recent cuts to budgets, the school district is toying with the idea of asking for a mill levy override so that they could hire more teachers, or more accurately hire some of the teachers they’ve had to eliminate. A majority (52%) of the respondents said they would support a mill levy override. But the consulting company concluded that such a bill would not pass in Happy Valley, primarily because of local economic concerns. Their opinion was that unless 58% of the population would support such an issue when first presented with the idea, it would not pass after idiots like Kevin King spewed forth their uninformed bile.
In the Wild West the first sign of civilization was when five or six families got together to bring a school teacher to their emerging community. They valued education, prioritized education, and paid for it even as they were barely eking out a living. What happened to that frontier spirit? When did we become so afraid of our own ability to create a civilization out of the wilderness? When did we decide to forgo investment in the future of our kids?
The Democrats of Mesa County recently sponsored a gun safety class for local school kids. In order to get a gun safety card, the kids have to pass a written test. A little less than one fourth of those kids would not have passed the test if someone did not read the test questions to them. They were unable to read the questions for themselves. That’s the definition of victim, Kevin, a kid who is functionally illiterate because our schools are failing them, and parents like you are unwilling to invest in anything that informs kids or citizens.
Homework
Results of School District 51 Survey
Western Colorado Congress of Mesa County
Links to Federal and State Drilling Regulations
Troll first. There is a member of the Tea Party who seems to believe that he is well informed on issues. I don’t know much about this individual, other than he is angry, doesn’t know how to string a coherent thought together into a sentence, is incapable of articulating a logical argument, and is misinformed about all manner of things. His post yesterday was about the new Western Colorado Congress of Mesa County website. He calls it a “victim” website. A website that posts the actual oil and gas regulations and all manner of news articles on topics involving human health is the opposite of a “victim” website—not that I’m sure what he means by “victim” website.
How can someone, who is informed about opportunities to express their opinion during agency open comment periods, be a victim? Federal agencies, by law, must hold public hearings on new regulations before implementing those rules. That is the essence of “for the people, by the people.” The people get to weigh in before any regulation is published or enforced. The Western Colorado Congress of Mesa County gives people the tools they need in order to be informed on issues before commenting on them. It empowers people rather than victimizing them.
Kevin King, you should have actually read the Udall article before you assumed that fracking is safe. What Udall said is that it is safe IF wells are encased from top to bottom. An industry CEO is featured in a commercial (currently running every news cycle) stating that their wells are safe because they enclose them from top to bottom in steel and cement and the production zone is deep underground, with layers of impermeable rock between the zone and surface water. That particular company MAY do that on all wells. I know for a fact that Colorado’s regulations only require only a portion of a well to be fully encased. I learned that from a Williams Petroleum representative when I toured some of their rigs and other facilities near Rifle. It is expensive to encase a well top to bottom in cement and steel. With profit the prime motivator for all business, as it should be, how likely is it that exploration companies enclose wells top to bottom in Colorado when it is not required that they do so? The largest local company doesn’t. They told me so.
I want clean water. I don’t want to be a victim. I want regulations on how wells are completed along the Colorado River. I want a river teeming with fish, nourishing local foods and wildlife, and clean enough to swim or boat in. Kevin, your ignorance makes you the victim, not me.
Along the same lines of willful ignorance and victimhood, the Board of School District 51 was presented with the results of a survey of local residents. Because of all of the recent cuts to budgets, the school district is toying with the idea of asking for a mill levy override so that they could hire more teachers, or more accurately hire some of the teachers they’ve had to eliminate. A majority (52%) of the respondents said they would support a mill levy override. But the consulting company concluded that such a bill would not pass in Happy Valley, primarily because of local economic concerns. Their opinion was that unless 58% of the population would support such an issue when first presented with the idea, it would not pass after idiots like Kevin King spewed forth their uninformed bile.
In the Wild West the first sign of civilization was when five or six families got together to bring a school teacher to their emerging community. They valued education, prioritized education, and paid for it even as they were barely eking out a living. What happened to that frontier spirit? When did we become so afraid of our own ability to create a civilization out of the wilderness? When did we decide to forgo investment in the future of our kids?
The Democrats of Mesa County recently sponsored a gun safety class for local school kids. In order to get a gun safety card, the kids have to pass a written test. A little less than one fourth of those kids would not have passed the test if someone did not read the test questions to them. They were unable to read the questions for themselves. That’s the definition of victim, Kevin, a kid who is functionally illiterate because our schools are failing them, and parents like you are unwilling to invest in anything that informs kids or citizens.
Homework
Results of School District 51 Survey
Western Colorado Congress of Mesa County
Links to Federal and State Drilling Regulations
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