I’d like to spend 24 hours with Susan Brantley and Anna Meyendorff. Susan is a “distinguished” professor of Geosciences and Director of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Pennsylvania University. She is also a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. Anne is a faculty associate at the International Policy Center of the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan (M Go Blue, right; another one of those bastions of “the highest” learning)! Pretty impressive credentials, don’t you think?
These two collaborated in a recent column in The New York Times titled, “The Facts on Fracking.” They, these two highly “distinguished and learned” educators, in my view, missed a wonderful opportunity to preach the “gospel according to Calvin.” This is the same gospel that I’ve written about over the years in my “Letters to the Earth,” that watches, observes, reports, and opines about the happenings around our globe.
Their column, which I want to review, misses the whole point. It says nothing about the US Energy Policy, or lack thereof. It says nothing about renewables. It merely says drilling for natural gas is okay. And, if hydraulic fracturing gives us an alternative to some other fossil fuel, e.g., coal, we’re going to be fine. I disagree. And Susan and Anna, I want time to give you my view. (Mr. Editor, will you set this up?)
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