The same river twice

I blogged a good bit last week about the big changes hitting those parts of West Virginia (and elsewhere) where the Marcellus Shale natural gas boom is taking place.

I went back up that way last week for the second time in 10 days and was amazed to find that some of the places I had just visited were unrecognizable. The pictures below provide an example. The first picture was taken on May 2. (How would you like to live that close to all that activity, by the way?)



The second picture was taken May 11.





(I think the big grey thingies are compressors for moving the gas through the pipelines.)

That's just one example. One place that seemed to be abandoned one week was a beehive of activity the next. One road blocked for pipeline construction was back in service and another was blocked. Drilling crews are highly mobile, as a fracking crews. It's basically a constantly changing landscape, which makes monitoring it and properly regulating it a real challenge. And monitoring it is an indispensable step in trying to reduce the negative impacts of the gas boom and make it more of a win/win proposition.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, NPR is doing a series on these issues this week. Here's one installment.

CHILD CARE.  WV leaders, after cutting corporate taxes by a hundred million or so, may slash child care assistance for working families.

AUSTERITY gets another whack here.

WHY REGULATE? Here's an example.

FIVE UNCOOL THINGS about life in the USA today are discussed here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED