Things we don’t see on the tv: Sneaky fracking guys. Politicians. City of Ember. Will we get the sunshine we deserve?

Most of the people I talked to  this week were in a better mood that usual. Everyone except for the GOP seemed to love Papa Francisco including myself.

#hope  #compassion #inspiring

It’s always when we’re trying to do something else when people take advantage.

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2015/09/22/florida-legislators-file-bills-that-would-prevent-communities-from-regulating-fracking#.VgP2y_ujL7Q.twitter

Florida legislators file bills that would prevent communities from regulating fracking

Posted By Erin Sullivan on Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 7:45 AM

“On Sept. 17, the League of Women Voters of Florida held a town hall on fracking. The event, which featured speakers from both pro- and anti-fracking factions, was well-attended by people concerned about the idea that utility companies are eyeing our state as fracking’s new frontier.

What better time, then, for two state legislators to quietly file pro-fracking bills, while so many activists were occupied?

On Sept. 17, Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, introduced SB 318 (aka, “Regulation of Oil and Gas Resources”). The bill summary is completely blunt about what it’s proposing: “Preempting the regulation of all matters relating to the exploration, development, production, processing, storage, and transportation of oil and gas.” Not only that, if a municipality has already decided that it does not wish to allow fracking within its jurisdiction, this bill would declare “existing ordinances and regulations relating thereto void.” The bill would provide an exception for certain zoning ordinances (it doesn’t say which zoning ordinances, but we like to think that it would at least respect your right to not have fracking companies set up shop in your residentially zoned backyard) but only if those ordinances were in place before Jan. 1, 2015. Interestingly, the bill doesn’t contain the word fracking anywhere in its text – nor does it contain the words “hydraulic fracturing.” Instead, it refers to fracking as the very innocuous-sounding practice of “high-pressure well stimulation.”

Read the complete text of that bill here.

Meanwhile, over in the House, Rep. Ray Wesley Rodriques, R-Fort Myers, filed a bill the same day that would do essentially the same thing as SB 318. Rodrigues’ bill, HB 191, declares that it’s the state’s job to regulate all things relating to the oil and gas industry, “to the exclusion of all existing and future ordinances or regulations relating thereto adopted by any county, municipality, or other political subdivision of the state. Any such existing ordinance or regulation is void. A county or municipality may, however, enforce an existing zoning ordinance adopted before January 1, 2015, if the ordinance is otherwise valid.”

You can read the text of that bill here.

Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, is one of the legislators leading the charge against fracking – he’s put forward a bill for the 2016 session that would ban fracking in the state completely: “We have a very unique geology here,” he says, pointing out that the fragile limestone bed beneath our soil would not be able to withstand the practice of shooting chemicals into it at high pressure. “Our geology does not allow for fracking to be done safely.”

Soto predicts that these pro-fracking bills will likely “sail through the House,” but that there will be a battle in the Senate. Soto says that if people do care about how fracking could impact the state, or about the state’s attempt to pre-empt home rule, they should contact their legislators. “We need all the help we can get from Floridians across the state,” he says. “We’d love support for the ban. Other states have done it. New York did it last year, so it’s not like it can’t happen here.”

If these bills pass, he says, “there would be no sanctuary against this in any county in the state. … it’s concerning, to say the least.”

Something similar happened recently in Texas. The small city of Denton, Texas banned fracking within its borders in late 2014. Less than six months later, the state of Texas signed a bill into law that banned any bans on fracking, nullifying Denton’s law. A story in the Dallas Morning News pointed out that “numerous studies” have tied fracking to earthquakes, and here has been a marked increase in seismic activity in the Dallas area recently. On Sept. 21, an earthquake that measured 2.6 M on the Richter scale shook the city. The San Antonio Current says it was the “more powerful than any of the other multiple earthquakes that hit the area this year.”

Although the U.S. Geological Survey has said that the cause of recent quakes in Dallas is not clear, a study released in May by Southern Methodist University concluded that stresses caused by “oil and gas activity” in the area are likely contributors.

Then I found this article.

http://floridapolitics.com/archives/185402-florida-house-democrats-denounce-fpls-fracking-fee

“That was the message from a press conference held Monday afternoon in St. Petersburg, as state Representatives Dwight Dudley (D-St. Petersburg), Jose Javier Rodriguez (D-Miami), and Amanda Murphy (D-New Port Richey) spoke out against a decision last week by the Florida Public Service Commission that would allow Florida Power & Light to collect up to $500 million per year from customers to further invest ratepayer money in natural-gas production. FP&L has roughly 4.6 million customers, but none in the Tampa Bay area (where Duke Energy and TECO are the main providers).

“Consumers are getting screwed again,” Dudley said in a phone call with Florida Politics late Monday afternoon. “A five-member panel of unelected people decide they’re going to allow this huge corporation get $500 million a year from ratepayers to subsidize and pay for fracking – drilling exploration and production of natural gas and oil,” he said with obvious disdain, adding, “It’s a staggering ripoff.”

More unelected people stealing thing from us.

Fracking is not happening right now in Florida. In late April, a proposal by Naples Republican state Senator Garrett Richter that would put “responsible regulations” in place for fracking failed to advance.

What’s it to him?

Our savings BTW will be 2 bucks a year. We can buy what two cucumbers with that. I can’t even buy the ingredients for my smoothie with that (cucumber, cantaloupe, almond milk, local honey and ice cubes). FPL wants 500 million dollars from you and can’t even buy you a smoothie.

Then I found this from last legislative session.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/politics/bills-offered-to-regulate-floridas-oil-and-gas-resources_97915246

Drilling has come under increased scrutiny in the past year, partly because the Collier-Hogan well, south of Lake Trafford, was fracked at the end of 2013.

Richter’s bill (SB 1468) defines the process as a “well intervention performed by injecting more than 100,000 gallons of fluids into a rock formation at high pressure” to create fractures to increase production at an oil or gas well.

He said the bill was crafted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, with input from other stakeholders including Collier County and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

Dee Ann Miller, a spokeswoman for the DEP, said the agency collaborated with Richter on the language of the bill but could not confirm if it would suggest changes or push for its passage.”

You can go on the link and read the rest. He said. She said.

But here is deal. We want no fracking. Just one more thing we do not need here.

My county Martin County said a big fat no to fracking.

oursantaferiver.org/wp/martin-county-wants-no-fracking/

My friend and tireless advocate for the water Merilee Malwitz-Jipson  came to town. ( Where was I?)

The vote was unanimous and unequivocal, with Palm City, and Indiantown Commisioner John Haddox leading the way with the motion to sign a state-wide ban on fracking.

Why are they in such a hurry?

http://m.dailykos.com/stories/1425188

So it very interesting that a person who was prescient of bank is all for fracking.

So again as happened last year there are people in our legislature that say they are for local control. They tell that to you when they are running. “I’m for you!”

Here is a trailer for program that at UCF. It’s called Booktalk. My son was really involved with the project. It was a program that made trailers from books and then showed them to kids so they would get interested in reading. The two people in opening are my son Adam and Dr Kenny.

This project was first place btw https://showcase.ucf.edu/doc/winners2005.pdf at tt 2005 Showcase of Undergraduate Research

The Book is CIty of Ember.

“The City of Ember is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by Jeanne DuPrau that was published in 2003. Similar to Suzanne Martel‘s The City Under Ground published in 1963 and Helen Mary Hoover‘s This Time of Darkness published in 1980, the story is about Ember, an underground city threatened by aging infrastructure. The young protagonist, Lina Mayfleet, and her friend, Doon Harrow (the second protagonist), follow clues left behind by the original builders of the City of Ember, to safety in the outside world.”

Every time I thing about electricity I think about this trailer. I think about the darkness and I think about the light. Then I think about the sunshine that is completely devoid in the State of Florida.

At about 1:07 “I’m your man!” That’s what I hear when people who do not have our best interests at heart do bad things. Then he says “it’s alright!”

Will they save ember or will the city be lost in darkness forever?

Will we be in the darkness forever?

http://floridapolitics.com/archives/191150-harvard-says-florida-one-of-americas-most-politically-corrupt-states

Harvard Law School’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics is out with a fascinating new report measuring legal and illegal corruption in American states, and Florida does not fare particularly well.

The deep dive is here, but here’s the short take:

• Illegal corruption is “moderately common” in Florida’s executive branch.
• Illegal corruption is “very common” in the state’s legislative branch.
• No state has a high ranking for illegal corruption in its judiciary.

When it comes to “legal” corruption, Florida falls into the “very common” category in both the executive and legislative branches.

Florida is also listed as one of America’s most corrupt states, along with Arizona, California, Kentucky, Alabama, Illinois, New Jersey, Georgia, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Rhode Island, and Texas.

The Safra Center compiled its corruption rankings in part by surveying news reporters covering state politics across  the country, in addition to the investigative reporters covering issues related to corruption during the first half of 2014.