Goats and Gas, Kind Of

I learned today about a new blog, NPR’s “Goats and Soda,” which gives details about growing health emergencies in emerging countries. I love the name, partly because I raise goats. But also, I love the image that it conjures in my head – choices. Goats symbolize existence – able to find food where others can’t; able to carry a load, or give a kiss when it’s needed; willing to share their milk so a friend can survive, and able to provide food to a human friend if that is what it costs. That is a truly noble animal.

Then there’s soda. I must confess here that I was basically raised on soda. It was, and still is, my preferred drink, only because I am so addicted to the caffeine. Even my doctor has said “Just try to cut back, the headache isn’t worth the benefits.” But I know that’s frivolous. I hate that Coca-Cola owns more water in Africa than any public water district there. I know that the sugar or other sweeteners are disguises for the acids, preservatives and other evil things in that potion. I know that the Coke that I used to love to drink I once used to remove rust from an old tricycle.

How does this relate to our Blasted Towns? Because so many of our neighbor are focused on the “coke,” of energy – the pipeline that promises jobs, like those sodas that lace their preservatives with a little juice. Those people who think ‘new’ is better than ‘tried and true.’ Because people will believe the advertising tripe about “bridge fuels,” and “cleaner,” over the basic truth. That truth is that calories count, whether they are sugar or mega=calories from megawatts. We have it in our power to live comfortably with existing technology, reasonable conservation methods and corporate responsibility.

Keeping warm is crucial to survival, but so is breathing, drinking safe water, and having healthy food to eat. Local farms, like those with goats, are cleaner sources for food from a carbon efficiency standpoint. In New England, they are less likely to be heavily treated with industrial chemicals because the scale of our farms is much smaller than in other parts of the country. More of our farms are sustainable, much like the goat, which yields tastier, safer, accessible food that will disappear if we have this pipeline come through our towns. Isn’t it better to have the source of our energy/food nearby, like the sun, wind, wood, local farms than to have to rely on someone to process it, transport it, and then pump it right past us on the way to another country? That’s like being passed up by the waitress while you wait at the bar for that soda.

Really? No one is perfect, and each of us has our vices. But those vices should only affect us individually, not our neighbors, or our descendants. My habit hopefully is counteracted by the good that I try to do with my goats, my work, this blog. If we are going to stop this pipeline we have to show people that they lose choices, personal power, quality of life, as well as potential water and food quality, if they allow this pipeline to come through. Is it really “for the greater good,” to give someone else the power to alter our survival resources? How is it for the “greater good,” if we receive none of the benefits, but lose many of our inherent rights to a healthy environment by allowing this pipeline to come through?

“Goats and Soda,” is a great dichotomy to make people think about survival. “Safety or Gas,” isn’t as catchy, but it comes down to the similar issues. We need to fight for our own water, food, air, and communities, and illustrate to those who only care about their ‘cheap energy,’ that it isn’t cheap, it won’t be “theirs,” and they will suffer the consequences in other ways. We can be the “herd queen,” that leads the herd to safety, or we can be the “bellwether,” that tells the predators where the sacrificial kids are. Which do you want to be?

Think for Yourself! Then Find Those Who Can Teach You!

As our nation experiences weather like we’ve not seen in recorded history, tremors and sinkholes are popping everywhere, and mysterious holes appear in the middle of Siberia, it must surely be the time to hold on to that knowledge which gives us security and confidence.

But what is that knowledge? Is it the knowledge that gas gives power and money, and for most of us it comes out of a pipe, not the ground, so we are cut off from “cause and effect?” Is it that money is voice and voice is protected by the Supreme Court, even if that one voice drowns out the effects of millions of other voices? After all, that voice is speaking for what you believe in. You can’t even understand the drivel from those other voices.

Is knowledge defined by fancy colorful graphs placed behind pretty people, explaining how gas in a “clean fuel?” Or is defined by the scientists who have been studying the climate and the causes of climate shift, usually for less money than any corporate executive makes? After all,money talks right. People don’t actually DO THINGS because they feel they are the right thing to do .
Or is the knowledge you learned in kindergarten, “The roots go down and then the plant grows up?” The simple idea that plants grow based upon what they consume, and since we eat those plants, we will ultimately eat that same energy. What does it tell you that the plants can’t grow in places where the water table has been disrupted, or even worse, blown up? What will you eat while you’re toasty warm in your fancy house, if the Midwest is full of fracking wells destroying those very plants that provide our national food supply?

But wait, let’s not over-react. After all this pipeline coming through New England isn’t BEING fracked, is it? No, it’s not, but it will carry the fruits of that destruction. It will leak that toxic methane that Mother Earth has sequestered underground, not for “until later,” but “for safe keeping.” If you’re God believing person, like I am, you certainly expect that He knew what he was doing when he put toxins away from our reach. We’re not talking about the Midwest, we’re talking about New England, the land that grows rocks instead of grains for the most part. “Hard as a rock,” doesn’t mean it’s not impermeable, just that it will shatter at some point, not necessarily in a predictable fashion. The blasting that will happen here may be as destructive to our water supply as the initial drilling that happens during fracking. We won’t be experiencing the forcing of polluted water into our water supply, but eventually, who says they won’t try? Once they are allowed into an area they can expand without much trouble, because the legal precedent has been set.

It’s time to listen to our hearts, not our pockets. It’s time to think for ourselves, do the research, talk to informed people, and stop swallowing the pablum that is overly simplified on commercials and laced with “cheaper for the consumer,” spices. Is it cheaper when we can’t drink our water? Is it cheaper when our health bills climb because of illness, or our utility bills climb because there are no other options and they control the supply ? Is it cheaper when the planet isn’t liveable, but you’ve had a comfy home for a generation? Too bad for those grandkids.

Turn on your brains! Listen to the voices that speak from the heart, not the pocket. Ask questions, and then make sure you get answers. If you don’t, assume that the real answer is too uncomfortable for that person to say. Our media is controlled by those who can pay their advertising rates. Those same people have as much cash as they need to reach our politicians. The only way to be heard above the din of self-interest is to BAND together to demand answers, and ACTIONS. Once our water is gone, it’s gone. Once our planet is beyond saving, where else do we go? I like it right here, in my Blasted Town. What do you think?

Comment on the proposed gas Kinder Morgan Pipeline

By Walt Cudnohufsky 8.13.14

Gas is neither a bridge fuel nor a cleaner fuel! It contributes at least equally, with other dirty

fuels, to our accelerating climate problem. Substantial methane, freed by gas drilling and

transport, has recently been calculated as sixty eight times more impactful and longer lasting

than co2. Clean and green is thus a myth!

By allowing the proposed Tennessee (Kinder Morgan) gas pipeline, even if against our will,

we are enabling destructive fracking and more pollution that any life time of conscious living

could ever mitigate. By voting no, this proposed pipeline gives us an opportunity, possibly the

single largest in our lives, to make a discernable difference on climate change and reducing

environmental impact.

It is my widely shared opinion that FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) is little more

than a rubber stamp for the oil and gas industry and our all too corrupt government. FERC will

almost assuredly find a “public need/necessity” where none exists.

It is critical to notice, even if you are now just learning of this pipeline proposal, that it is not

early in the planning process! On the contrary it is very late and near the end of that process.

As a land planner with some experience with transmission routing and road alignment, I have

come to know the four major stages of planning and design for such networks.

(1) Corridors several corridors would normally be reviewed--each multiple miles wide. Then

(2) Routes which can be up to one or two miles wide and within a selected corridor.

(3)Alignment the more specific path within the route and finally

(4) Design the technical specification for construction.

Kinder Morgan are assuredly in the fourth and final design stage for this pipeline, no matter

what they pontificate.

Sophisticated environmental data for the first three stages is readily accessible to the

corporations without going on the land. The important thing to note is there is only minimal

flexibility in their plans at this late fourth stage and with a favorably inclined FERC (they

know already of their favored odds of achieving approval) what we say and think is severely

discounted if ever it had value.

I submit that the cumulative effect of impacts of the pipeline, must be assessed for the entire

pipeline even if in multiple states and tabulated and reviewed cumulatively by state and at the

federal level.

The impact studies must also include any lateral distribution pipes (mentioned in their

presentations) which could rival the proposed direct pipe line in aggregated length and

impact. The laterals are likely to be equally impactful and damaging because of certainty to

be in populated areas. If Kinder Morgan claims there are no laterals planned or designed,

it is assured that the huge proposed volume of gas is destined to be shipped off shore. The

container ships and LNG stations are on order, being planned and constructed as we ponder

this pipeline.

The environmental impacts of fracking in addition to the pipeline itself (PA, NY, elsewhere)

must also be a simultaneous part of an environmental and cultural impact assessments.

Incremental review of any part of this fracking-pipeline system is severely deficient. There

are ample town, state and federal regulations that support and require this cumulative and

aggregated environmental review.

There is currently encouraging momentum in the mounting resistance across the affected

Towns in Massachusetts. By use and electricity rate increases, everyone in the State is involved

not just the directly affected communities.

My conclusion: If ever you were to speak up and take action, now is that time! Support your

neighbors and fellow citizens and all the Massachusetts and New York communities certain to

be harshly impacted. See http://www.nofrackedgasinmass.org/