Upstate Editorials: Gas drilling, detainees, health reform

The Kingston Daily Freeman on March 2 on delaying hydraulic fracturing in New York to allow more time for environmental study.

Back in August, we suggested the state Legislature allow sufficient time to study the issue of drilling for natural gas before setting policy on the use of hydrofracking technology.

The prudent way to develop sound policy, we said, is to allow adequate study to make a reasoned judgment based on science, rather than the depth of the drilling industry's pockets.

After reading over the weekend the first in a promised series of articles from The New York Times about hydrofracking, we're more convinced than ever that the current energy rush for trapped natural gas needs a firm and indefinite timeout.

Poring over internal documents obtained from drillers and federal and state regulators, the Times said it found evidence of previously untold dangers posed by the extraction technique, which involves the injection of water and chemical under pressure

into rock formations.

The industry has maintained the technique is time-tested and no contamination has been documented. But opponents say the technique poses an environmental threat.

The Times said its review of the documents showed, among other things, that:

-- Wastewater that comes back to the surface can be highly radioactive and has been inadequately treated before discharge into rivers that are sources of drinking water;

-- The federal government has known that some treatment facilities were not designed to remove known contaminants of drilling wastewater; and

-- Despite the known health threat, downstream water supplies have not been required to test water sources for radioactivity.

There's no debating the nation's need to diversify its energy sources to meet rising needs, shift to fuels that burn cleaner than coal or oil, and decrease reliance on politically dicey foreign sources.

Natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation -- deep underground beneath Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio -- is said to be enough to supply the East Coast for up to 50 years.

But to make the calculation that the current rush to new sources of domestic natural gas is sound policy, you have to have a firm grasp of the environmental tradeoffs.

The nation, after all, has seen what happens when just one oil well blows out of control in the Gulf of Mexico. Full-scale development of the Marcellus Shale could result in 30,000 wells over 50,000 square miles, each pumped full of some 4 million

gallons of water, chemicals and sand.

In addition to the potential danger of pumping chemical through existing groundwater sources and the known fouling of air in drilling fields, each well produces that wastewater.

More to the point, we are hard-pressed to imagine a scenario in which Americans would agree to drink radioactive water in trade for domestically produced natural gas.

Before any more drilling permits are issued, let's take the time to find out exactly what a massive program of hydrofracking would entail. Then decide.

http://www.dailyfreeman.com

The Watertown Daily Times on military trials for detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

President Barack Obama backed off a key campaign pledge Monday in resuming military trials for terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

The president signed an executive order his second day in office to close the prison as he had promised in his campaign opposition to the counterterrorism policies of President George W. Bush. Two years later, it appears that the prison will remain open indefinitely as the venue for military trials and even imprisonment after the president encountered fierce opposition to trying terrorist suspects in federal civilian courts on U.S. soil.

Mr. Obama earlier had backed off plans to try leading 9-11 suspects Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his four accomplices in federal courts in Manhattan after objections were raised about security and costs. Congress also blocked the president's plan to house terrorists in an Illinois prison by refusing to appropriate funds for it.

Faced with the realities of governing, Mr. Obama has returned to the policies of his predecessor, with some modifications intended to make them more acceptable to civil libertarians and human rights advocates.

His executive order limits the use of hearsay and coerced evidence. It also establishes necessary review of cases of 48 suspects being detained indefinitely, possibly without trial, since they are considered too dangerous to release but the administration either cannot prove its case in court due to how the evidence was obtained or a trial might involve revealing security information. Their cases will be reviewed within the next year and every three years after that.

Among those facing trials soon is Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is accused in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. An official said the administration is still committed to bringing the 9/11 plotters to justice but did not indicate when they might stand trial.

President Obama reiterated his support for civilian trials, but his plan now means Guantanamo will remain open for the foreseeable future.

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com

The Buffalo News on March 4 on the failure of health care reform to reduce medical costs.

It's hard to reverse course without paying attention to how you got on the wrong road to begin with, and how you correct your mistake. But that is exactly what President Obama has done.

Having ridden the wave of victory in 2008, he dove in with force to create his own federal health care plan. He showed such pride in addressing the biggest-growing cost problem Americans faced. The only problem is that he did nothing to lower the costs of health care. Instead, he created a monster expense -- yet another entitlement program he said the government would be able to handle.

Then came the elections of 2010. The public condemned his free spending and delivered control of the House to Republicans. Meanwhile, a massive budget deficit threatened to sink the country.

Obama swallowed the bitter pill and said he would address the problems that had agitated voters. But he has not. He has talked the talk, but has refused to walk the walk.

The majority of Americans know that rising health insurance costs are dragging down their standard of living. Has Obama addressed that? No.

The deficit is out of control, measured not in hundreds of billions but in trillions of dollars. He knew that entitlements were the lion's share of the deficit. Would he attack them? No.

In fact, Obamacare may become yet another entitlement that will need fixing, on top of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

Obamacare comes at a time when not only the federal government, but also state governments are in trouble. And one of the reasons state governments, and even county governments, are in trouble is because of the growing costs of Medicaid. It currently accounts for 21 percent of state budgets and is growing. It covers 53 million people, and Obamacare will add another 20 million in 2014.

Here is what awaits: Massachusetts, the state that led the nation in health care for all, approved an unprecedented $9.6 billion to cover its share of Medicaid last year. It wasn't enough. Gov. Deval Patrick had to go back to the legislature twice for an additional $600 million.

While states, including New York, will have to address this crisis, essentially these are problems the federal government owns. And although Obama has said he faces "tough choices," he has balked at making them. Indeed, the actions needed to salvage the nation's finances are anathema to the president. They go against all his previous life of providing money and programs for people he saw in need.

Nevertheless, that is the task. It is up to Obama to face these challenges; he is the man. Much of Obamacare's cost is pushed out until 2014 -- past the president's re-election year, but he does not want to go into 2012 with the mud of failed programs on his hands. If he fails to tackle these monumental problems, the public will clearly see that he has failed in his presidential leadership and doesn't deserve a second term.