Pennsylvania Democrat Policy Committee Chairman- Marcellus Shale Workers Are STD-Ridden Drunks Who Will Probably Kill Your Kids

The debate over drilling for Natural Gas in the Marcellus Shale took a nasty and downright odd turn this week when replying to am e-mail query about the impact of exploration and drilling on local communities from Capitolwire.com, Pennsylvania House Democrat Policy Committee Chairman Mike Sturla (D-Lancaster) offered the following reply:

“Also, aside from building roads so their trucks can get to drill sites and doing a little stream work to mitigate damage from their road building, exactly what are all those things the drillers are doing for the local communities? Patronizing the bars at night? Driving up the cost of rental housing? Spreading sexually transmitted disease amongst the womenfolk? Causing school districts to ask local governments to ban truck traffic on local roads during school bus pick-up and drop-off times so kids don't get killed? Upgrading emergency preparedness equipment to handle a well blow out? Running compressor stations that have decibel levels equal to a jet engine?...Really community-oriented stuff...”

Not surprisingly, the state Representative's archaic comments about the STD riddled workers and promiscuous 'womenfolk' has drawn the ire of Rep Sturla's GOP counterparts in the Pennsylvania state house- many of them representing districts where natural gas drilling and exploration are taking place.

“Talk about wrong-headed, misinformed, archaic, and just shocking,” said Rep. Sandra Major (R-Susquehanna/Wayne/Wyoming), the House Republican Caucus Chair. “The House Democrat leadership attitude, after studying the impacts of the Marcellus Shale industry in Pennsylvania, is insulting.”



“Drunks and promiscuous ‘womenfolk’ – that is what the House Democrat leaders are calling the hard-working men and women living within the Marcellus Shale region,” Rep. Sheryl Delozier (R-Cumberland County) said. “Who can really support such notions from leaders who think so little of those working in a growing industry?”

However, Representative Sturla stood by his comments on Wednesday.



Keep in mind that Sturla is from a political party that claims to have the monopoly on concern for the American blue-collar worker, yet his comments about the drunken and diseased Marcellus Shale workers and promiscuous womenfolk exhibit a contempt towards blue collar, rural Americans more typical of Manhattan or inside the Beltway. By and large it seems to be reserved for those doing the hard work in the energy sector, but not necessarily limited to those along the Marcellus Shale.



No less than 10 oil rigs have departed the Gulf of Mexico since the Obama Administration imposed a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after last year's Deepwater Horizon spill.

Earlier this year, the EPA and US Fish and Wildlife Service had proposed moving the dune sagebrush lizard onto the endangered species list, which would severely impact drilling and other activity along its habitat in the Permian Basin along the Texas-New Mexico border.



Obstructionist environmental groups have undertaken a publicity blitz including billboards as far away as Chicago urging public opposition to Trans Canada's proposed Keystone KL pipeline that would send oil from Alberta's Athabasca oil fields to a refinery in Texas.



Exit question- If I were an environmentalist or leftist who held Americans that worked in the coal, oil or natural gas sectors in the utmost contempt, what would I do differently to express my disdain than what any number of Democrats from President Obama all the way down to state Representative Sturla have already done in terms of policy?



[Hat tip- Unlikely Hospitalist]

Egypt Unrest Continues- Natural Gas Pipeline Attacked; Egyptian VP's Bodyguards Killed in Assassination Attempt? Foreign Reporters Attacked in Cairo

Egyptian state TV is reporting that saboteurs taking advantage of near lawlessness in some parts of the country have attacked a natural gas pipeline that runs between Egypt and Israel.

Residents of the El Arish area in the North Sinai region of Egypt reported a loud explosion on Saturday. It's not clear the immediate impact the blast had on supplies to Israel, but a state TV correspondent blamed the act on terrorists.

Earlier in the week, President Hosni Mubarak had promised to step down after the September 2011 elections, but that was not enough to assuage most of the demonstrators.

The protests in and around Tahrir Square in Cairo escalated on Thursday when Mubarak supporters approached the square and occupied rooftops above, clashing with the anti-Mubarak demonstrators and pelting them with rocks and chunks of pavement from above.

By Friday morning,the scene had become even more surreal when more pro-Mubarak demonstrators mobilized by horse and camelback [way to live up to the stereotype, gentelmen- NANESB!] and charged into the assembled crowds, whipping and beating some of the anti-Mubarak demonstrators. Some in the crowd had managed to pull the riders off of their mounts and said that their would-be assailants were carrying Police ID. By nightfall, each side was hurling Molotov cocktails at each other and Egyptian soldiers were attempting to disperse crowds by firing warning shots into the air.

There were also incidents of Western journalists being attacked and some news agencies offices being torched. FOX News' Greg Palkot and Olaf Wiig and CNN's Anderson Cooper and his camera crew were repeatedly punched and kicked by pro-Mubarak crowds that had descended on them in separate incidents in the capital [Just putting this out here, CNN- How about sending Joy Behar to Cairo??- NANESB!]. The Cairo offices of al Jazeera were torched and it's website was hacked on Friday as well while a Swedish TV reporter was recovering from stab wounds in a Cairo hospital.

Reports are also circulating that there was an unsuccessful assassination attempt this week against Egypt's newly-appointed Vice President, Omar Suleiman. The office of Vice President was vacant when Mubarak appointed him to the position on January 29- Suleiman is also chief of Egypt's intelligence services and would likely be the head of an interim govern. It wasn't immediately clear who was behind the attempt, but Egyptian officials said that two of Suleiman's bodyguards were killed and that his motorcade was the target of the would-be assassins.

Confirmation of Natural Gas Deposits Have Israel Poised to Become Energy Exporter For 1st Time

Houston, TX based Noble Energy [NYSE: NBL] has confirmed the presence of a 16 trillion cubic feet reserve of natural gas off of Israel's Mediterranean coast last week. The natural gas field, known as Leviathan, could be worth as much as US$90 Billion at current market prices. The Leviathan discovery would be the biggest such discovery in a decade.

The news about Leviathan comes one year after a separate natural gas field, Tamar, was discovered off the coast of the Haifa region. The Tamar field is thought to contain another 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and was also discovered by surveyors from Noble.

The two discoveries are considered game-changing. Because of oil rich Islamic states hostile to the nation of Israel, the Jewish state often ends up importing oil or natural gas from as far away as Norway or the UK. The Leviathan and Tamar gas fields mean that not only could Israel become self-sufficient for her energy needs but once production begins, Israel could be an energy exporter for the first time in her history.

Of course, with the discovery comes the question of what to do with the anticipated surpluses. Noble has proposed the construction of a LNG plant, which would require billions of dollars in additional investment. An undersea pipeline has also been proposed, but that doesn't seem as likely given the hostility of some of Israel's neighbors. Already, Lebanon has claimed that part of the Leviathan field is in Lebanese waters.

There's also the matter of taxes and revenue from natural gas production. Israeli lawmakers have recently proposed nearly doubling the taxes on domestic oil and natural gas production, meaning the governments take could be more than 50%.

Production for the Tamar field isn't expected to begin until next year.