Objectivity, conformation bias, the stork and far left knee jerk reactions to fracking and the Canadian pipleline.

 I'm a 64 year old liberal. But what I also try not to be on the topic of energy production is a hypocrite. As I read the responses here I’m certain that about 99% of you drive cars to your home where you turn on you lights, put your cell (made in an energy hog Chinese factory) on the charger, cook or microwave (made in an energy hog Chinese factory) something to eat, which you get from your freezer/refrigerator, (made in an energy hog Chinese factory) boot up your computer (made in an energy hog Chinese factory), hit the net, turn on a TV (made in an energy hog Chinese factory).. And on and on, yet you’d think from what’s here that you haven’t got a clue what powers it all. You can NOT live a modern life and be AGAINST energy production that is scalable to hundreds of millions, indeed billions of people. Please notice it has to be scalable. You can’t get nearly enough of it from our favorite tree hugging sources, wind, solar, hydro (most tree huggers don’t like that one) or geothermal. If some of you have homes that generate enough to take you off the grid, more power to you, so to speak, but understand the money it took is way beyond the reach of probably 95% of the people on the planet. You can be anti-drilling and NOT be naive. You can’t be knee jerk against fracking and the pipeline unless you’ve got something that nobody I bring this up to seems to have. A plan to replace them that’s workable in a way that doesn’t kill world economic growth, fragile as it is, in the process. Enacting a carbon tax or conservation plans is fine but it won’t keep your life powered tomorrow, next week, next month, next year or in the next decade.

Have you ever been home in a power outage that lasted at least a couple of hours? Have you gone into a room with your candle or flashlight and found yourself absent mindedly reaching for the light switch? That is how much we take energy for granted.

So, It also bugs me when I see bloggers that seem to have no understanding of journalistic ethic, no education in journalism or science completely mislead readers who, I believe, they know are there looking mainly for a good conformation bias fix. On the left of the left it’s getting to the point where they don’t appear to be much better at avoiding that kind of bias than is the far right. They deny climate science while we think the stork brings our electricity.

Mr. Blades of Daily Kos writes of a "study" by the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project published in the periodical Reviews on Environmental Health . But this paper, or review is not a study in the way most people think of a study where researchers go in without prejudice one way or another and do science and publish their results. Astoundingly, David Brown, lead author of the SPEHP review, tells us what he wants the outcome to be. “The objective of this paper is to illustrate that current methods of collecting emissions data, as well as the analyses of these data, are not sufficient for accurately assessing risk….”  He tells us up front that he’s out to prove, before he’s begun, that current methods and analyses are “not sufficient”.

Do I have to tell you that is not how good science should be done? And in what I read I found several parts where it was clear they hand brought their preconceived notions with them. In the end, it reads more like an opinion piece than objective scientific investigation. I have a feeling that if they had submitted this to the Journal of Environmental Health we'd have never heard of it. (to everyone who uses their cell all day and often, Reviews on Environmental Health also published a "study" that says cell use causes brain tumors. I guess that would explain a lot.)

If these are example of the best studies or Reviews or papers, or call them studies, then it’s little wonder the agencies looking for unbiased opinions on how to improve are having such a hard time.

Fracking is not rocket science. It can be done. And like all human endeavors we can’t expect it to be without flaws. 

Why is Fracking the low hanging fruit so many young people seem to be all over instead of the real Dr. Evil of energy production? COAL!  Partly it has to do with something I write about more and more. Young people have never heard the legendary John Prine song "Paradise" about Muhlenberg County the Kentucky strip mine (lyrics) that removed the town of Paradise  from the face of the earth. Nor were they around to take up the cause of Appalachian coal miners or lobby the government to at least make the coal companies do some clean up and plant some trees keep what's left of the mountains from washing away. 

We should all still be outraged at the amount of Coal used to power dirty eclectic generation stations in Ohio, WV, PE and KY etc.  You want to go against the biggest polluters with the biggest health impact in their communities in the whole energy field, there is no bigger target than coal. I shouldn’t even have to tell you how bad mining, transporting, and burning coal for electricity is. There is much more quality science regarding the environmental and community health impacts of coal mining than there is fracking. You can see the terrible scars in the earth from active strip mines in Google satellite maps for god’s sake! You get a lot more bang for the buck by stopping coal burning and replacing it with natural gas. Just ask many states out west like say, California. CA with is huge population uses no coal for electricity. Zero, zip, nada. It gets its electricity from gas burning and a very significant amount from Hydro. They generate more than most of us in solar, and wind, even some geothermal.

To be fair to the energy industry as a whole, it’s facing steep increases in demand over a short period of time. This is the solution they think will work, and it can reduce coal burning. 

And I know many of you won’t want to hear it but we need to take a serious look again a nuclear generation. It’s come a long way since the early days. Take a look a Europe.

So, I think people on the left need to step back for a moment, regain their honest skepticism and critical thinking skills and use them continually to justify the things we are against just as much as the things we are for. Honestly, you can’t be against everything. Absent from almost all discussion on fracking is what you are for if you are against it.