Good Tuesday morning. Here’s a digest of opinion content published today in The Journal News:
Fracking investment: Editorial
We comment on a report from Jon Campbell in our Albany bureau that revealed that the state pension fund has invested more than $1 billion in a dozen energy companies. Some of those concerns, it turns out, are engaged in hydraulic fracturing. We write:
… Based on a Gannett Albany Bureau review of pension fund investments as of March 31, 2010, New York had some $1 billion invested in more than a dozen energy companies, as the bureau’s Jon Campbell reported over the weekend.That includes $72 million in natural-gas giant Chesapeake Energy Corp. and $145 million in Schlumberger Ltd., which specializes in oil field services and hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking. An additional $15 million went to Chesapeake and Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. and $30 million to Southwestern Energy Company, both shale gas concerns. The pension fund has hundreds of millions of dollars more invested in companies like Exxon, which in recent years have acquired shale drillers.
High-volume fracking is prohibited in New York, pending a policy review, but drilling companies are bullish, buying up drilling rights and promising jobs to employment-starved upstate communities. Environmentalists want more inquiry first, because of the risks. Chesapeake, the most active U.S. driller, made big headlines last month, for a fracking accident in Pennsylvania that sent thousands of gallons of toxic liquid across farm fields and into waterways. Nobody wants that here. …
bin Laden: Reisman
Phil Reisman wonders what will become of the Abbottabad compound where Osama bin Laden evaded American pursuit for so many years. He writes:
… Personally, I am looking forward to an open house at the bin Laden abode.All they need to do is make it a little homier, perhaps plant some impatiens around the barbed wire.
And those bullet holes in the master bedroom are nothing that a little putty can’t fix.
I’d pipe in some appropriate aromas, too — like lamb stew or the more evocative smell of cordite. …
Gas tax holiday: Commentary
Rockland County Legislator Edwin J. “Ed” Day, a New City Republican, responds to our May 5 editorial in which we argued that proposals for a gas-tax holiday in New York amount to nothing more than gimmicks. Day argues the opposite and says that such holidays would boost fuel sales.
More opinion
Here’s what our colleagues at papers across New York are saying:
Two decisions on bin Laden: Editorial, The Buffalo News
Bust the bus terrors: Editorial, Daily News
Obama expands education vision: Editorial, Poughkeepsie Journal
