Unless youre Andy Borowitz or Dave Barry, you cant make this stuff up. Heard on radio this morning: At their news conference today [Alabama Public Service Commission ([yup]) President Twinkle Andress] Cavanaugh and PSC commissioner-elect Chip Beeker invoked the name of God in stating their opposition to the EPA proposal [to reduce power plant carbon emissions by 30 percent; this is the war on coal]. Beeker, a Republican who is running unopposed for a PSC seat, said coal was created in Alabama by God, and the federal government should not enact policy that runs counter to Gods plan. Who has the right to take what Gods given a state? he said. [Obviously Gods plan is for Alabamians to take the coal. Wait . . . would that mean the first Alabamians? Oh, never mind.] Cavanaugh called on the people of the state to ask for Gods intervention. I hope all the citizens of Alabama will be in prayer that the right thing will be done, she said. It seems never to occur to such worthies that, if God put a resource in the ground (or on it—thinking of forests & wetlands), perhaps God meant for it to stay there. Perhaps the tight oil or frackable gas is all thats holding certain strata of shale together and preventing the sorts of earthquakes that are multiplying in Oklahoma and the sinkholes opening in Louisiana. Perhaps ocean-bottom ecosystems were not put there to be scoured into oblivion by trawling. Perhaps the Earth & its life-sustaining systems are not just a given—an overflow of resources to be used, transformed, &/or destroyed—but a priceless, essential gift. In fact, it seems many humble materials like minerals, water, CO2, etc., are involved in cycles that humans tinker with at our peril. It may well be that our ignorance of any cycles involving underground hydrocarbons is simply that: our ignorance. Perhaps replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion needs to be read in Genesis as an enlistment in stewardship, not a license to plunder. Here endeth my rant. ow.ly/zHGTe (You may need to reduce the display size of the page [CTRL + hyphen key] a few times to keep the picture from blocking out some text.)
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 14:12:39 +0000
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