Jack Kelly is a racist piece of shit

I don’t normally comment on purely nationwide issues for this blog, but before I get to the truly outrageous portion of Jack Kelly’s column today — and why he deserves to be fired from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette immediately — it is still worth noting that as usual, Jack Kelly doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about when it comes to the issue of gas price rises.

Kelly gives three reasons for oil price rises, two of which are mostly wrong. He says:

“(a) the value of the dollar is declining, which makes everything we import more expensive”

Scaremongering about inflation and the devalued dollar is a favorite right-wing sado-monetarist preoccupation these days, despite still-high unemployment, depressed consumer confidence and widespread economic insecurity among the working class. Kelly does his level best (read: worst) to try to bring this into this discussion, and the devalued dollar does indeed drive up the cost of imports, but the undeniable truth is that rising fuel prices are a worldwide fact, no matter what currency your country uses.

Kelly continues: “(b) the Middle East, where most of the world’s oil is produced, is in turmoil.”

This is absolutely true, and it is the only part of the explanation that Kelly gets right. Of course, this “turmoil” is to be welcomed by anyone who actually values freedom and democracy, but people like Jack Kelly are worried because “the natives are restless,” threatening our oil which is buried under their sand.

Finally, Kelly reaches for his favorite target: “(c) because the Obama administration has sharply restricted oil drilling at home.”

This is nonsense. The US Energy and Information Administration estimates that an offshore drilling moratorium in the Outer Continental Shelf, for instance, would produce only a 3-cents-per-gallon increase in the price of US gasoline as of 2030.

The real story, of course, can be found in publications like The Wall Street Journal, a Murdoch property pitched to a demographic that actually runs the world, and which expects to know what is actually going on. This segment of the population is quite unlike the hoi polloi who are the target demographic for that other Murdoch property, Fox News, where Jack Kelly finds kindred spirits, and where troglodyte racism is in the driver’s seat with the basic facts very much in the back seat. Or rather, the trunk. Or the curb.

Anyway, The Wall Street Journal reports soaring profits for Exxon Mobil, Occidental Petroleum, and Royal Dutch Shell, which it attributes directly — right in the headline — to higher oil prices. Both the Journal and the Financial Times point out that rising commodity prices — not least oil — “mostly reflect voracious appetite from new industrial powerhouses [Brazil, India, and China], and only partially supply shocks, such as Mideast troubles.”

In this context, of course, the idea that a government-mandated crimp in US oil production has anything to do with it is downright laughable, and no one who is interested in actually making money from these industries takes it seriously, apart from when they need it for propaganda purposes to demand more access to drilling areas. But Jack Kelly believes it, of course, and he gets some support from a hilariously uninformed reader on the letters page, whose contribution should be quoted in full:

[Dear editor]: In your April 27 editorial on gas prices you conclude that current high prices are caused by oil company profits and oil company executives’ compensation packages. Really, that’s it? The evil oil companies?

President Barack Obama’s restrictions on drilling for our own oil in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere don’t even deserve a mention?

THOMAS WAGNER

Murrysville

You can almost hear the wheels turning when reading that one, can’t you? The evidence of oil company profiteering is clearly in front of Mr. Wagner’s face, just as the president’s long-form birth certificate is now there as well. But he just can’t bring himself to acknowledge the facts, can he? The eyes narrow. A furtive tongue emerges from between pursed lips, perhaps presaging a spot of drool. An oft-accusatory down-home right-wing finger unconsciously reaches to scratch the top of a blushing head, containing a sorely-overtaxed brain.

But enough of the substance. Disposing of Kelly’s “arguments” about oil prices is too easy, and in his commentary on national issues, he is not unlike any one of many low-rent reactionary propagandists for the oil industry and corporate America generally. In other words, not worth spending much time when it comes to discussing local issues.

Kelly crosses the line, however, when he references the Obama Administration’s investigations of oil speculators, writing: “This is like O.J. Simpson’s search for ‘the real killers.’” Kelly is smart enough to know exactly what he is doing when he writes this. He is going for a guffaw from white supremacists who will enjoy his comparison of Barack Obama to O.J. Simpson.

This is absolutely disgusting, and should not be tolerated. Whatever editor at the PG saw this and let it pass deserves a reprimand. Kelly himself deserves to be fired. This sort of garbage is unbecoming the daily newspaper of a racially diverse city, or indeed of any city. Let Kelly play the martyr if he wants. Once he’s gone, someone else will no doubt pick up the tab for his sophomoric, ignorant bullshit. He can try out for a spot on The Apprentice.

Time for the left to get serious about winning a severance tax

The other day I heard yet another statement from a progressive who said that we all need to be careful about pushing for a severance tax on natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, because we really need to stop the drilling altogether.

It is time to cut it with nonsense like this.

It is not that the environmental consequences of drilling should be ignored. Far from it. The environmental organizations in the state are by-and-large unhappy with widespread drilling and its consequences for the water (among other things), but they do recognize that getting a severance tax would be an important secondary victory. And given the very heavy lift that even such a secondary victory involves, it is imperative that when we talk about the Marcellus Shale, that we focus like a laser on winning this demand. Once again, that doesn’t mean not talking about the costs of having this industry here. Quite the contrary: We need to talk about the damage they do, and the wealth they take from us, in the context of saying that they need to give something back.

We need to win this victory, and that helps consolidate support for the next steps, and gives our troops some confidence that they can win.

Despite the industry-friendly governor and legislature, the industry is feeling the pressure, and knows that it is going to have to shell out some money eventually, which is why they’re now coming out in favor of “local impact fees.” We should all be for local impact fees, too. The companies should pay for the wear-and-tear on local roads and other services. But it is not nearly enough, and we can’t afford to allow them to use this as an out. The right-wingers in the legislature, all of whom are in the pockets of the industry and resistant to any taxation, are nevertheless concerned about the overwhelming public opinion in favor of a severance tax, and so they are going to play their favorite trump card here: racism.

“Local impact fees” will be of minimal cost to the industry, which is what the right-wingers want. And they are going to portray it as the right way to do things, because they don’t want more money being taxed from the industry to go into the general fund. If it goes into the general fund, they’ll say, then some of it goes to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. This is the most common dog-whistle of the rural right wing in the state: If money goes to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, that means it goes to black people. So the right-wingers in the state legislature will fight to protect the industry by appealing to base racism, which is also how they got their jobs in the first place.

This is a power-play by the industry, in alliance with the troglodytes. It is possible to counter it. We just have to be aggressive.

It means we have to get in front of the companies themselves, demanding that they pay a severance tax: They should tell the governor themselves that they support a severance tax, not just an “impact fee.” And in fact, they should cut the check right now! Why are school children expected to suffer when these companies are not paying taxes on the gas they extract from our state?

It also means that, wherever we live, we should be screaming at our legislators in no uncertain terms. “You must pass this severance tax! No more giveaways to gas corporations!” If they’re on our side, good. We should still scream when they have town halls, or when they’re back in town on legislative break. If we’re screaming, it gives them cover. “My constituents are really upset about this!” In fact, if they’re really with us, it gives them a chance to grandstand as well. “You’re damn right, I’m sick of this! Not only will I vote to tax them, I’ll co-sponsor any bill that does!” We should reward them when they grandstand in our favor, and growl if they hem and haw.

At the end of the day, we should act in a way that allows us to actually win on this issue. With enough pressure, it is possible, even with this legislature. But let’s remember how much money is at stake here. It is a lot. Consider Range Resources, which is now pulling out of the Barnett Shale in Texas, and focusing its operations in the Marcellus Shale — which is to say, mostly Pennsylvania — because the company believes it is much more potentially profitable, in that it opens up future opportunities to move into the Upper Devonian Shale above the Marcellus and the Utica Shale below it. The resistance of the industry to a severance tax is fierce, and it will only cost the entire industry a few hundred million dollars a year at its fully-functional peak. Just imagine how much a moratorium (like they have in New York) would cost them, and how much more fierce the resistance will be.

So, we first need to prove that we can tax them. That’s a pretty big job to complete in this political environment. Only then does talk of a moratorium become a serious political possibility. And there’s no doubt that that would require a different legislature.

All Out for April 4 and May 3!

It is wrong to react to Corbett’s budget with anything less than wrathful, boiling outrage. Back in December I laid out in some detail the disaster awaiting us all because of the combination of (1) the Republicans’ end to Federal stimulus funds and (2) the bipartisan extension of the Bush tax policies pushed, at that time, by the White House and the Senate Republicans. That post of mine is one of many places where you can read some analysis of the grotesquely unfair system of state and local taxes in Pennsylvania. When Corbett cuts education funding from pre-school through K-12 through the university level, we all know that the poorer you are, the bigger the hit your children’s education will be taking. So the sum total of Federal and state policy at this moment amounts to a transfer of wealth from the working class to the very rich.

Which brings me to this question:

Why is this man smiling?

That man is David Porges, CEO of EQT, formerly Equitable Resources. He is smiling not only because his company made $355 million in profits last year. He is smiling because David Porges personally made nearly $6.3 million last year in salary, stock and stock options, and other pay; his base salary is set to rise this year, and his overall “incentive” pay will also almost certainly rise. And why is that?

Because EQT is a major Marcellus Shale natural gas driller. The Pittsburgh Business Times 2011 Book of Lists (subscription only) says that EQT had 135 Marcellus Shale drilling permits as of October of last year, with 28 permits pending. No doubt even more are on the way.

EQT is just one of the companies that is participating in this bonanza, its executives are getting rich, and they pay no extraction tax on the gas they take from underneath our state. The total money lost to the state for not enacting a severance tax is near $167 million as of this writing.

Knowing these facts should make it all the more nauseating to read the governor’s budget address. How about this smarmy line, for starters?

“If government is here to share the taxpayer’s wealth then everyone needs to share in the sacrifice. Educators, Pennsylvanians await your decision.”

It is time to start sending a message that we’re not going to take this anymore. Labor is mobilizing for a demonstration this coming Monday, April 4, at noon in EQT Plaza at 6th Street and Liberty Avenue, Downtown Pittsburgh. If you work Downtown or are anywhere within miles of Downtown at that time, you need to be there. And you need to print out that flyer and give it to your friends, and plaster it up everywhere you go.

Then you need to arrange to get time off work or whatever else you were planning to do on May 3, so that you can attend the Rally for a Responsible Budget in Harrisburg. You can go to the website for the May 3 rally and register to get to Harrisburg on a bus, or let them know you will be driving yourself. You’ll receive an e-mail with further details about the rally.

Corporate America and the very rich caused the economic crisis that has lead to our budget crisis. It is time to make them pay. The rest of us can’t afford it.

Shared sacrifice, indeed.

Peasant resistance in Brockway

Someone ought to take the time to assemble every instance of local resistance to natural gas drilling pollution in Pennsylvania, the kind of thing that I have previously compared to a peasant revolt. If we gather this information now, it will save a lot of labor for some future Herbert Aptheker, who diligently cataloged every uprising of the slaves one hundred years after the fact, using spotty records.

One recent incident is the $20,000 in damage caused to construction equipment at a site in Elk County operated by Flatirons Development. The site contains a fresh water holding pond and is owned by the Brockway Water Authority. Some of the documents relating to the Flatirons bulk purchase of water from the authority are available online thanks to the efforts of the Allegheny Defense Project. It turns out that the authority must have soured on things very quickly, because it eventually threatened to get an injunction against the company to stop Marcellus Shale drilling in its watershed; the authority and Flatirons eventually came to an out-of-court settlement, but a short three weeks ago, water stopped flowing into an artesian well owned by the authority when drilling by Flatirons pierced the aquifer.

It’s fairly obvious that someone subsequently decided to take direct action. The interesting part is gauging the community reaction. Local newspaper website comment threads are usually rank cesspools (or Marcellus Shale wastewater-contaminated rivers, if you like) of cranky right-wing ranting. Not so, this one. The lead-off comment is as follows:

It is a shame it has to be this way; however, I am sure there are many residents, with no stake in the Marcellus Shale drilling, who feel no one is listening to their concerns and are tired of their roads and forests being destroyed and watersheds being jeopardized. One may wonder what kind of individual would risk this kind of mischief, but I wonder what kind of drilling company would risk contaminating our water supply. Who is more arrogant? Did anyone notice this is Brockway Water Authority property? The drilling companies sure aren’t worried about the possible consequences, and our government has proven they are on the side from which the money comes. What’s left for a common citizen to do but fight for what he/she believes is right. That’s what the people in Egypt and Libya have been doing for the last few weeks. Fighting for what they believe in!

$5000 Reward? If I knew who did this damage you couldn’t get it out of me if you multiplied that by 20!

Subsequent comments endorse the sentiment, and the one industry apologist who appears is slapped down. Just as campaign signs don’t win elections, website comments do not make a majority. But if comparison with other newspaper comment threads is a good counter-indication, there is more than a little discontent in rural Pennsylvania.

What they need now are some organizers who can stitch all these fights together into something that will have a political impact. That would take real commitment to grassroots organizing from environmental foundation-land.

The US Chamber of Commerce is a sick joke

The Chamber rates Pennsylvania’s so-called “business climate” as “poor,” and has Haley Barbour lead off their press conference, citing Mississippi as an example for other states to follow.

Mississippi has the lowest household income of any state in the country.

As of December, Pennsylvania had an 8.5% unemployment rate, which is bad enough; Mississippi’s unemployment rate was 10.1%.

Yet the Chamber argues that Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate would be lower if it adopted Mississippi-style policies of busting unions; adopting right-to-work-for-less laws; screwing workers out of workers’ comp; and stopping people from being able to sue when they suffer employment discrimination or unfair treatment at work.

Why does the Chamber not seem to care that it is this easy to demolish their idiotic, spectacularly dishonest arguments? Perhaps because they’ve already purchased enough politicians to get what they want anyway? Let’s hope not — or at least fight to make sure they don’t succeed.

Contaminated drinking water in Pittsburgh and beyond

Today’s in-depth New York Times article on natural gas drilling is a must-read for everyone in Pennsylvania. Most of the focus is on Pennsylvania, which the article correctly describes as “Ground Zero.” None of the information here will be surprising to people who have been paying attention, but there is a deeply informative level of detail based on analysis of newly-obtained government documents.

I recommend taking the time to read the whole thing, and also clicking on the interactive maps that show where natural gas wells are producing wastewater with levels of chemical contamination dramatically in excess of Federal limits for drinking water; in Pennsylvania this tends to end up in rivers and streams that in turn provide drinking water. Treatment plants are not able to remove all of these contaminants.

The Reaganite legacy of deregulation is on full, insane display:

“Federal and state regulators are allowing most sewage treatment plants that accept drilling waste not to test for radioactivity. And most drinking-water intake plants downstream from those sewage treatment plants in Pennsylvania, with the blessing of regulators, have not tested for radioactivity since before 2006, even though the drilling boom began in 2008.”

Perhaps the most telling passage is from an interview with a DEP inspector who, not surprisingly, chose to remain anonymous: “We simply can’t keep up,” he says. “There’s just too much of the waste.” And further: “If we’re too hard on them, the companies might just stop reporting their mistakes.”

Let us give thanks for lower taxes and limited government!

Bank of America should be paying us, not the other way around

Perhaps there is already historical amnesia about this, but let’s go over a few key facts:

* In 2008, Bank of America received some $25 billion from the Federal treasury in the form of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

* Merrill Lynch also received money from TARP, both for itself and in the form of payments on its insurance arrangements with AIG, which by that point had also been bailed out by the government.

* After Merrill Lynch reported losses of $27 billion in December of 2008, caused by the collateralized debt obligations irresponsibly piled up by its traders, the government obliged Bank of America to buy Merrill Lynch, and then rewarded Bank of America with another $20 billion from the Treasury in January 2009.

* But the absorption of Merrill Lynch didn’t happen until after its top management had arranged for enormous bonuses for themselves: the bonuses totaled $3.6 billion, or one-third of the money allocated to Merrill and awarded to BoA after the merger.

Yet now, the troubled Allegheny County Port Authority has to pay $39.2 million to Bank of America Merrill Lynch to get out of an unfavorable bond deal put together by Merrill Lynch in the years when the firm’s avaricious and dishonest practices were at their height. In the years of the Skoutelas administration at the Port Authority — blame him all you want, but a lot of public borrowers fell for this — Merrill enticed the authority into a bond deal that looked good up-front but contained the risk of rising interest rates in the future. These variable-rate bonds were the public-finance equivalent of the adjustable-rate mortgages that these same financial institutions offered to home-buyers, then sliced and diced into securities that destabilized the financial system.

The very fact that Bank of America can get away with this sort of thing is appalling. It gets interpreted as something like an unfortunate force of nature, rather than an outrage that can and should be stopped. Bank of America Merrill Lynch has enough of our money already, thank you very much. There’s no rational reason why a public authority running an essential service should be forced to pay millions of dollars to appease a firm of shameless scam artists who created this economic crisis and made themselves obscenely rich in the first place. They can afford to give up the $39.2 million, and should instead be grateful that they are not in prison, which is where they belong.