The news coming from the gas fields of our Northern Plains shows a real boom area with jobs for all able bodied who come.  Housing prices rising at record rates not even seen in San Diego during the housing boom of the first half of the first decade of this new century.  And speaking of California, the gas boom promises to reach that state as well. 

Who would have thought that a gas boom in Pennsylvania would spark economic recovery well beyond the lofty goals of President Obama’s “Stimulus” program?  Remember, our oil industry started in Pennsylvania, no reason a resurging economy can’t start there too. 

However, this “boom” will leave an environmental battlefield littered with failed arguments against increasing dependence on fossil fuels and warnings about the dangers of global warming caused by using fossil fuels.   Also left for dead will be warnings about “fracking,” the technology that makes possible this new petroleum boom.

I have no doubt that the boom in our pertroleum industry will be the spark that finally ignites real recovery in our economy.  I am equally confident that it will throw a wet blanket on the global warming debate.

Why must those who depend on these medications for their daily survival have to pay the price for those who abuse them?  A good friend uses vicodin to control her severe pain from a bad sciatic nerve.  It is the only relief she can get from her debilitating condition.  But the FDA is considering making the medication available on a one time prescription that means a visit to the doctor each time she needs a new prescription.  Bad enough that she pays over $100 for the prescription but she must also pay for the doctor visit another $100, and she has no health insurance.  Instead of getting a prescription with several refills for one doctor’s visit she gets only one fill that vastly ups the cost of her medical attention. 

Another friend has severe allergies for which she uses Claritin D.  But this drug is tightly controlled and she cannot get enough at any one time to treat her condition adequately thus she has to select the times when she is well and when she suffers from the allergies. 

Of course the reason given for this tight control and proposed outright bans on these effective medications is that they are abused by some who use them as “recreational” drugs.  So the many who seek relief from debilitating ailments must pay the price for those who abuse the drugs. 

Where is our society going?  Why must the innocent bear the burden for the wrong doers?   I say let the abusers swallow whatever they want and let them bear the burden of their misconduct.  Do not punish those who have legitimate needs for valuable medicines.

Of course the hot water is provided by a solar system on the roof which means it is best to shower or bathe during the day, not at night.  In contrast the heating is radiant heat which uses a lot of electricity and in Mallorca the electricity comes mainly from petroleum fired stations. 

The main feature of the house, as the ladies told me, is that the building materials are “bio-friendly,” which they added means that no concrete blocks, bricks or cement was used.  Instead the frame is of wood and the walls are plaster covered blocks of  straw.  The mind boggles.  Nothing could be more “bio-friendly” than concrete and bricks.  They are made from the earth itself and to dust will eventually return.  On the other hand using wood means destroying more of Spain’s few forests. 

Worse, the house is a firetrap since wood and straw burn like crazy.  And while we have an elaborate system for fighting brush fires that occur each fall, we have limited resources for fighting house fires since there are relatively few.   The reason, most homes are built of concrete block and brick and stone which do not burn.

Amazing how the desire to be “earth friendly,” often results in bigger problems.  Or could that be the case in general?

I have, however, learned how government meddling in the name of protecting the environment has killed off one of San Diego’s iconic industries, the tuna industry.  San Diego was the birthplace of  canned tuna fish, the most widely used item in making sandwiches in the USA.  As such it is a “staple” of our national diet.  This was the home of “Charlie the Tuna” and his competitors. 

But the entire industry has gone away, crushed under a mountain of rules and regulations imposed on the fishing boats, canneries and processors.  The catching and packing of tuna has moved to the Far East and South Pacific leaving little evidence of what once was a major employer in the San Diego area. 

The important lesson to learn here is that tuna fish remains a popular item in American homes, it just comes from further afield.  Thus what was once a major source of employment and income in the USA has become an export of American funds.  As a staunch defender of the global economy I have no problem with this since I am only concerned with supplying the market with the best product at the best price. 

But I am sure there are many who lament the loss of jobs and income as well as the export of funds to import the product.  In essence we have a compounded loss, the income from domestic production and the export of funds to buy the product from abroad.  Cast against a lackluster economy with a questionable future the loss looms larger. 

Once again we must remember that in our attempts to improve the quality of life, for fish and fowl, as  well as for mankind itself, we should weigh the costs of new rules for doing this against the economic loss that the rules incur.   And here is my main complaint about my “environmentalist” friends and colleagues, they seem to suffer a lack of balance in their attempts to “Save Mother Earth.”   We all want a healthy environment with clean air, clean water, and clean food, for man and beast, but we must be ready to accept the cost of doing so and, if that cost is excessive, approach the matter another way.

Alejandro was the inventor of the Talgo train, a watershed event in railway history.  The Talgo’s basic innovation was to have only one wheel axle per car with the front of the car in back resting on the back of the car in front.  The design was referred to as an “articulated” train. This basic design allowed for a closer to the rail system that allowed higher speed and greater traction.  Over the years the Talgo has progressed to become one of the fastest,  most reliable trains in the world today.  Alejandro was a real pioneer in developing modern, high speed trains.  And I had met him and become a friend.

I learned after his visit that, in spite of his Basque surname and origins, Alejandro was persona non grata in the Basque lands.  Its seems that during the Spanish Civil War Alejandro had been pressed by the Basque government, which had taken advantage of the war to declare its independence, to design and build the formidable defensive network surrounding Bilbao, the capital of the breakaway Basque Republic, called the “Cinturon de Hiero” or the “Iron Belt.”  Alejandro, however, wanted no part of an independent Basque homeland and subsequently fled to the Nationalist forces led by Franco.  He gave Franco’s men the plans to the “Iron Belt,” who used them to break through the barrier, and put down the revolt.  Result, Alejandro was never allowed back in his home town and province.

What has this to do with the environment?  One of the most vigorously pursued means to reduce carbon emissions is high speed rail transport.  Alejandro was a pioneer in this field and he gave me great insight into what it can and cannot do.  The project he was competing for in Miami when i met him was a light rail system that, along with high speed rail, are being actively pursued to reduce motor vehicle transportation.  Light rail means that the motive force of the train is distributed throughout the train as is the case for modern metro rails.  Instead of a heavy locomotive pulling a line of cars, motors are placed on all wheels, thus distributing the weight of the motive force over the entire train and allowing a “lighter” rail to hold up the train.

And why is this important now?  I am visiting California which has an active debate in the state legislature over state matching funds to allow the state to receive Federal grants the state has been granted to build high speed railways in the state.  In contrast my state’s governor, Rick Scott of Florida, rejected the Federal funds because he feared the state’s contribution would prove to be too high for the benefits of high speed rail.  He based his decision on Florida’s experience with a light rail line already in operation.  It runs from the airport in Palm Beach through densely populated communities to the airport in Ft Lauderdale and on to the airport in Miami.  Optimum routing for such a railway, connecting three major airports and the chain of communities between them.   In spite of its optimum routing, ease of operation, low cost power requirement and more, the railway has proven to be a distinct waste of public funds.  Ridership does not even pay operating costs, much less any of the investment cost.  Moreover, it has done nothing to reduce the brutal congestion on the highways and byways of the huge megalopolis that runs from Coral Gables to Palm Beach.

This disaster is not without parallel in our frantic full court press to develop alternatives to motor vehicle transportation.  And beyond lie the costly disasters to reduce fossil fuel consumption outside transportation, e.g. the half a billion dollar loss of Fed funds on the Solyndra photovoltaic project.  So the California state legislature should examine the bill to fund high speed railways very carefully.  And if it finds that it does not make economic sense, return the Federal funds for others to use.

Oh, by the way, the project that Alejandro came to describe to me was that light railway from Palm Beach to Miami that has proven to be a waste of public funds.

I fear these noble rationales will not fair well with the general population.  The basic reaction instead is, “I am already suffering from a dismal economy, this makes it worse.”  Truly a hard sell nin an election year.  

Not surprising it is home to lots of “snow birds” fleeing cold climes in the north, at least until the snows thaw.  To get some idea of the seasonal nature of the place, my church has 250 families that live here year-round.  But during season there are over 1000 families coming to church. 

No question the basic draw is the warm weather.  Ft Myers beach humbly proclaims itself, “the world’s safest beach,” and it is a spectacular strand of white powder beach.  But there are lots of great beaches further north that can compete with it and do in the summer.   It is also a great place for lovers of live music with no less than a dozen places offering live music all week.  The  fishing is great and the golf the best in the USA.  But the real draw is the warm weather.

And it is humid heat.  I hear many state their preference for the dry heat of south Texas or Arizona.  I lived in the Northern Mexican Desert, Monterrey.  The summer sun can literally fry an egg on the hood of your car, I know, I did it once.  But breathing that 110 degree dry air is like sucking on an oven.  It burns your nasal passages and your lungs.  Much better is the humid heat of south Florida.  It penetrates your bones thawing the cold in the marrow.   It relaxes the aches and pains in your joints. 

Global warming has been good to south Florida.   Oh, living at 18 inches above sea level I guess I should be worried about rising seas from global warming.  But at the current “break-neck” pace of rising seas it will take something like two centuries for the sea to reach my front door, long after me, my children, my grandchildren, my great grandchildren and more generations  have enjoyed the warm clime and been buried in the cold ground.

I have a real concernn about diabetes.  My father died from it.  My sister and brother have it.  I dred my annual medical check up this week since it may finally find me as a new member of that fateful club.  Genes no doubt have something to do with this possibility but obesity looks like the more likely cause.  My father was basically a small man, about 5 ft 5 in stature he weighed at age 70 when he died as much as I did at the same age, but I stand half a foot taller.  

The great dilemna I see is that we all like to eat the rich, tasty foods popularized by Deen but they are the main culprits in causing obesity.  “Healthy” foods tend to be less interesting and flavorful.  As I always say, all diets start the same way, drink water and graze on the lawn.   I know I wll hear many who say there are tasty healthy foods but I don’t see many craving a portabello mushroom sandwich as much as a Big Mac. 

My remedy?  Instead of wasting time trying to convince people to eat less tasty but less fattening foods, we should turn our attention to making the popular, but fattening, foods less fattening.  What’s that you say?  It can’t be done.  What about sugar.  We have successfully produced a “sugar” that has no calories.  Splenda is made from sugar but without the bad calories.  Surely there are ways to extract calories from other popular foods. 

Rather than change the rich diet of tasty foods that make life more interesting, let us work to eliminate the calorie count in them.  

As for the complaint that oil from Canada is “dirty” I believe the opposition means “dirty” production, i.e. produced from oil laden sands instead of wells.  The actual oil is no more laden with unwanted components, e.g. sulphur, than is the oil we get from California and certainly “cleaner” than that we get from Venezuela which is just short of being asphalt.  

And as for the complaint that using the oil from Canada will delay development of alternative energy I say “get real.”  Fossil fuels provide over 90% of our energy and that will not change soon.  Eschewing the oil from Canada will simply mean relying more on oil from unreliable suppliers, e.g. Iran. 

The problems with alternative energy are well known.  During the “Energy Crisis” of the 1970s then  President Carter made billions available to foster aternative energy.  Of all the ideas developed with this massive exppenditure of taxpayer funds only one remains in general use, harnessing methane gas from pig excrement in pig farms to use as fuel - billions spent on a pile of pig s__t. 

If one drives from Los Angeles to Palm Springs he passes through a massive outdoor graveyard of idle wind turbines built in a frenzy to provide electric power.  And while on windmills, how about the millions of birds killed each year by the massive blades of the current generation of wind turbines? 

Needless to ad, we now have the Solyndra fiasco in which half a billion dollars of tax payer money was wasted.

Yes, new, cheaper, cleaner sources of energy will be developed and most probably by the same companies that now supply us with oil, gas and coal.  But get real about the prospect of replacing fossil fuels overnight.