Oil Prices; Ending Enviro News Wrap: Fracking: Poisoned Water vs. Jobs; Wind Industry Makes Its Case; Spinning Big Oil Subsidies, and more…

GlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week:

• Fracking in Europe is having mixed reactions. In Poland the first well is in operation and the groundwater is still perfectly clean. Maybe if you don’t pollute the ground most people wouldn’t have a problem fracking, but in places like Ohio people feel like they are not getting an adequate level of protection from groundwater contamination. For Republicans in America Fracking is just a PR campaign about “jobs.”
• Higher oil prices mean more profit. Why does the price of oil have to be so volatile, and if the price will always be so volatile then why should we continue to base our economy off it? Obama is stepping up and asking for an end to subsidizing the exceedingly profitable oil industry. Shouldn’t we be subsidizing growing companies that help America, instead of subsidizing established rich companies that hurt us? Like BP, they just lost got served a $7.8 billion settlement for private plaintiffs for the Gulf Oil Spill. Why should we give BP tax breaks?
• What is the main difference between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to climate change? One wants to use science, the other wants to use belief. Can we really afford to have the National Energy Policy of the US based on some guy’s personal beliefs rather than based on the collective minds of thousands of really intelligent and well-trained scientists?
• CNBC assures the American public that high oil prices are great, go ahead and pay more for every product and know that it is a sign of more good times to come. FoxNews puts their own spin on it, and agrees that high oil prices mean we have a recovering economy, but I thought FoxNews broadcasts the opinion that we have an economy in shambles with no hope due to the policies of Obama.
• The wind industry makes the case for its own legitimacy. In England the Prime Minister calls the wind subsidy program wasteful.
• Have you ever heard of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy? Apparently it is part of the US government.
• In a future dealing with the realities of climate change, water will become one of our top priorities. And if you want to get really doomsday about it, you can worry about climate change causing earthquakes and tsunamis.  And, on a positive note, Belgian author Gunter Pauli thinks the new economy should be Blue, not Green; yes that will save the day!

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• The Natural Gas Fracking Bubble & Scam (Fracking Ponzi Scheme?) (cleantechnica.com)