I knew it was pretty bad here in Texas and much of the west, but I didnt realize the extent of this summer 2022 drought. Similar in lots of other places around the world. And the places that aren’t in a drought are mostly flooding. From US Drought Monitor.
The data has been out there for a long time. Fracking was a money pit for investors. I heard $500 billion in capital lost. Everyone should read this. From the New York Times:. Hardly Anyone Talks About How Fracking Was an Extraordinary Boondoggle
From 2006 to 2014, fracking companies lost $80 billion; in 2014, with oil at $100 a barrel, a level that seemed to promise a great cash-out, they lost $20 billion. These losses were mammoth and consistent, adding up to a total that “dwarfs anything in tech/V.C. in that time frame,”
From The Guardian. Have to go the the UK press to get this sort of investigative journalism these days.
It looks like there is a new four part series currently airing on the BBC about the petrochemical industries public relations efforts to deny climate change. Will post when it is available for viewing in the US.
From the Houston Chronicle.
I usually don’t watch CNN but stumbled on this hour long piece. Worth watching. Explained lots of thing about Texas politics that I didn’t understand. A good quote:
Kel Seliger, a longtime Republican state senator from Amarillo who has clashed with the billionaires, said their influence has made Austin feel a little like Moscow. “It is a Russian-style oligarchy, pure and simple,” Seliger said. “Really, really wealthy people who are willing to spend a lot of money to get policy made the way they want it — and they get it.”
$3 billion a day in profits. $16 billion a day in subsidies ($11 million per minute).
Again we see the famously corrupt Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, at work. If he wasn’t the top law enforcement official in the state where I currently live, it would almost be amusing.
Steven A. Guccione 