(Via @scottlincicome) Political stances have consequences: “Natural gas is so abundant and cheap in much of the U.S. that producers want to export it overseas. Except in New England, where gas is so hard to get that companies are importing it from as far away as Yemen.” In this particular case, the stance was we do not want any of those dirty, dirty fossil fuel pipelines in our backyards; and the consequences are soaring natural gas prices (2/3rds higher than the rest of the country) according to the WSJ, with the price probably continuing to skyrocket because of increased demand from consumers and what may be a really, really cold winter*. There’s also apparently the consequence that New England air pollution levels have been rising in the last year due to the need to burn stuff that’s less efficient than natural gas, but that’s a whole different issue**.
…Well. Loathe as I am to see a bunch of Americans pay through the nose for electric – and more importantly, heat – many, many people are going to not-really-nicely note that New Englanders have largely brought this fate down upon themselves by voting in Democrats. And it’s true! New Englanders did, and they have. But let us not think too much about what divides us; let us instead concentrate on what all civilized people can agree with. Which is to say, it is in the best long-term interests of New England voters to vote in more Republicans to office***. Say what you like about even liberal Republicans, but our party is in general agreement that Americans should not be cold, hungry, and in the dark****.
One last point: it is perhaps not a great idea for the Democratic party to be more or less dominated by NYC/DC/Californian liberals. The weather’s better in all three locations than it is in New England and the Midwest, and that’s apparently having an effect on their energy policy thinking. And no, I’m not sure why Barack Obama doesn’t ‘get’ this, being that he’s ostensibly from Chicago. …
But is he, really? Really? I mean, let’s face it: we all know where the guy’s true allegiance lies*****…
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*This is a basic concept, by the way: when there is a high demand and low supply, prices rise.
**Just wait until New England finds out that their coal and oil plants are going to get targeted by Barack Obama’s EPA too, though.
***Yes, ‘more.’ New Hampshire has a Republican-controlled legislature; Maine and Massachusetts, Republican governors. May more states up there follow these good examples.
****In fact, we’re all kind of bemused here that the Democratic party seems so determined to stake out the opposite position. There simply aren’t that many nihilists in America, although I suppose that the existence of the Internet can skew one’s perceptions when it comes to that philosophical position.
*****The Beltway, of course. Barack Obama loves everything about the Imperial District, and always will. Why, what did you think that I meant?
… I feel the need to point out this: http://www.almanac.com/weather/longrange
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Unfortunately, the winter New England forecast isn’t available for free, you’d have to go buy one of the things ..
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In my opinion, more liberals should be forced to read the almanac .. the weather forecasting model works better’n what the “climate scientists” have come up with and successfully accounts for some of the long-term trends in Cali. (yes, it *does* dry up every decade or two ..)
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Oh, and it’s available on Kindle .. but if I include the link it’ll send this post to the spam bucket and break the “don’t make more work for Moe” rule, so you’ll have to click on Moe’s shopping link and search for it yourself.
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Mew
While not in New England, upper New York state is pretty close by. Pity Gov. Cuomo decided there would be no fracking for natural gas in NY state.
We New Englanders also get the distinct pleasure of being lectured by communists through Citgo and Joe Kennedy about how terrible we are for not having affordable heating oil, every single winter.
There’s a certain amount of irony in there, but it is lost on so many of my fellow New Englanders.
to “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”, perhaps we should add “cold”.
Coincidentally, just a couple weeks ago I got into it a bit with a known lefty, who was going on about the conspiracies of Big Oil. At least this person had the grace to shut up when I exclaimed “Crimeny, we’ve been warning about this for 20 years.”
20 years ago, working for a pipeline engineering company, we were working on this problem; but we could not get permits to expand the energy corridors, to run new lines down existing corridors, to increase the compression at the stations along the pipelines. Yeah, 20 years ago we were warning about this.