Knowledge Problem

Lynne Kiesling

Yesterday the KP Spouse and I drove the 11 hours home from Thanksgiving at his mother’s in Maryland. 11 hours each way (I drove out a week early for the Southern Economic Association meetings) is a small price to pay for avoiding the rudeness, indignity, invasiveness, and civil liberties violations associated with air travel in the U.S. I used to be a 50K+/year flyer, and in 2011 I committed to flying as little as possible. I have succeeded; I had one international flight in July and will have one flight to Hawaii in December for a vacation that I promised to the KP Spouse.

One reason why driving has been so enjoyable during my airline/TSA boycott has been the new car we got in March:

It’s a 2011 Mini Cooper S Countryman, 4 door, 4 cylinder 186 hp turbo engine, front wheel drive, and it’s an incredibly fun car to drive! It’s also the cutest car I’ve ever owned, and is well designed to carry all of the gear for two avid athletes. It’s got a more muscular look than the 2-door Mini, but is still a Mini through and through, except for the BMW engineering on the inside (and the BMW X1 chassis that is the basis for the body). This is definitely a performance vehicle, with a stiff ride and an efficient but larger engine, so we made the tradeoff of slightly worse fuel economy (25.9 mpg so far) relative to our old Honda Civic. So far we’ve had no mechanical difficulties whatsoever with the car, and really, really love it.

I am thankful for the creativity and innovation that led to a car that gives me so much joy while enabling me to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with my beloved husband and in-laws without having to endure the invasiveness and indignity of the TSA.

Lynne Kiesling

Does President Obama realize his hypocrisy when he says (as he did in his weekend radio address) that “as Americans, we refuse to live in fear”, while simultaneously having large armed law enforcement teams storm airplanes that have landed, remove passengers, strip search them, and detain them without probable cause or a warrant? Soshana Hebshi gives her own account on her blog; Mike Riggs reports on it at Reason, and James Fallows reports on it at The Atlantic. Note in Hebshi’s account that there were about 50 such events on Sunday, so if you think this is an isolated event you are sadly mistaken, or dare I say with all respect, naively deluded and in denial.

This authoritarian drive for power and control is a consequence of our fear-based “anything for security” policies. Such fear-based cowardice is socially, culturally, morally, and economically corrosive.

It.must.stop.now. And it will only stop if we, individually, choose consciously to object to authoritarian policies grounded in fear-based cowardice, make our objections loud and unavoidable to our peers and our elected so-called representatives, and refuse to be terrorized by our own government.

As long as this state of affairs persists, these issues are far, far more important and life-threatening (and way-of-life threatening) than electricity regulation, regulatory and competition policy, and technological change. That’s why I am writing about Shoshana Hebshi today rather than those topics. It.must.stop.now.

Lynne Kiesling

Seriously, this is why I love Joseph Schumpeter — from The Theory of Economic Development, p. 64, fn 1:

“… what we are about to consider is that kind of change arising from within the system which so displaces its equilibrium point that the new one cannot be reached from the old one by infinitesimal steps. Add successively as many mail coaches as you please, you will never get a railway thereby.”

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Lynne Kiesling

I’ve tweaked the blog theme, largely because I’ve never liked how the indented quotes were formatted previously. It has some minor weirdness in the sidebar, which I’m working on. Progress, progress.

Lynne Kiesling

Hi, how are you? Long time no chat. I hope you are all well.

I’ve been lurking, but not feeling like I’ve wanted to talk about what I’ve been up to. I do have some research I’ve been working on that I want to discuss, finally. But what’s really captured my mental bandwidth recently has not been directly related to economics, so I shifted to reading Mike’s awesome analyses of energy economics.

Anyway, Happy New Year, and best wishes for 2011.

Michael Giberson

From the EPA news release:

(DALLAS – December 7, 2010) Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered a natural gas company in Forth Worth, Texas, to take immediate action to protect homeowners living near one of its drilling operations who have complained about flammable and bubbling drinking water coming out of their tap. EPA testing has confirmed that extremely high levels of methane in their water pose an imminent and substantial risk of explosion or fire. EPA has also found other contaminants including benzene, which can cause cancer, in their drinking water.

EPA has determined that natural gas drilling near the homes by Range Resources in Parker County, Texas, has caused or contributed to the contamination of at least two residential drinking water wells. Therefore, today, EPA has ordered the company to step in immediately to stop the contamination, provide drinking water and provide methane gas monitors to the homeowners. EPA has issued an imminent and substantial endangerment order under Section 1431 of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Parker County is located west of Fort Worth, Texas.

The natural gas company in question is Range Resources Corporation. They issued a statement denying (naturally) that they are causing any groundwater problems in the area:

Based on our findings to date, it’s very clear that our activities have not had any impact on the water aquifer in southern Parker County or the subject water wells. Range’s wells are completed in the Barnett Shale formation which is over a mile below the water zone. The investigation has revealed that methane in the water aquifer existed long before our activity and likely is naturally occurring migration from several shallow gas zones immediately below the water aquifer. Despite these findings, we remain committed to working with regulators and residents to determine the cause and to assist with any remediation the Texas Railroad Commission determines is warranted. Range will also offer to provide drinking water to residents in the area while the investigation continues.

A related news story from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram discusses similar complaints by other people claiming groundwater problems caused by development of the Barnett shale and actions by the Texas Railroad Commission, the state agency with the obligation to police such issues.

Here is a copy of the EPA’s letter to Range Resources.

Clearly this episode is far from over.