So, last night [2010-11-14] CBS hauled Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, on board their flagship Sunday infotainment vehicle, 60 Minutes, to blow a mighty wind up America’s ass (as they say in professional PR circles). America is lately addicted to lying to itself, and 60 Minutes has become the “go-to” patsy for funneling disinformation into an already hopelessly confused, wishful, delusional, US public.
“Shaleionaires” looks at the use of shale as a resources for energy production and the environmental problems associated with it. (Click on the video below to watch the full episode here for free)
McClendon told the credulous Leslie Stahl and the huge viewing audience that America “has two Saudi Arabia’s of gas.” Now, you know immediately that at least half the viewers misconstrued this statement to mean that we have two Saudi Arabia’s of gasoline.
Translation: don’t worry none about driving anywhere you like, or having to get some tiny little pansy-ass hybrid whatchamacallit car to do it in, and especially don’t pay no attention to them “green” sumbitches on the sidelines trying to sell you some kind of peak oil story…. It also prepared the public to support whatever Mr. McClendon’s company wants to do, because he says his company will free America from its slavery to OPEC. By the way, CBS never clarified these parts of the story by the end of the show.
Click below to play: Shaleionaires. 14 Nov 2011. 60 Minutes. CBS news.
(Editor’s Note. 13 Aug 2013. See also: Mehdi Hassan. Trump Told Lesley Stahl He Calls the Truth “Fake News” to Discredit Journalists. So Why Did She Let Him Do It Again on “60 Minutes”? The Intercept.
In her “60 Minutes” interview of Trump on Sunday, Lesley Stahl asked very few follow-up questions and allowed a number of blatant lies to go unchallenged.)
See also: Sourcewatch article on Aubrey McLendon.
McClendon died in a solo-occupant, single-vehicle crash at 9:12 a.m. on March 2, 2016. According to police reports, he died instantly when his 2013 Chevrolet Tahoe SUV traveled at 88 mph and crashed into a concrete overpass for the Turner Turnpike on Midwest Boulevard in Oklahoma City.[42]
McClendon’s body was badly burned, making identification difficult. A forensic odontologist was brought in, and positively identified McClendon by his teeth on March 4, 2016.[78] The medical examiner’s office reported McClendon died from multiple blunt force trauma. On March 3, 2016, less than 48 hours after McClendon was charged, the Justice Department filed motions and dismissed McClendon’s indictment.[79] On June 8, 2016, the Oklahoma medical examiner officially ruled the crash which killed shale pioneer McClendon was an accident. According to the autopsy report, no alcohol was involved in the accident, but an unspecified amount of the over the counter first-generation antihistamine and short-term sedative drug Doxylamine (which is used as an antihistamine or to treat insomnia) was found in Mr. McClendon’s system. It was most likely a suicide, considering it happened a day after he was charged with orchestrating a conspiracy [80]
Wikipedia article on the death of Aubrey McLendon
Audio from 911 calls involving Aubrey McClendon’s crash on YouTube.
See also: Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein. Fracking Incarnate. 11 Feb 2019. LA Review of Books.
Fossil fuels have powered human growth and ingenuity for centuries. Now that we’re reaching the end of cheap and abundant oil and coal supplies, we’re in for an exciting ride. While there’s a real risk that we’ll fall off a cliff, there’s still time to control our transition to a post-carbon future.
See also: Heinberg, Richard, and Daniel Lerch. The Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century’s Sustainability Crises. 1st ed. University of California Press, 2010.
Wikipedia: Music clip used in video below: Reed, Lou. Walk On The Wild Side (1972). RCA/BMG Heritage, 2002.
Post Carbon Institute provides individuals, communities, businesses, and governments with the resources needed to understand and respond to the interrelated economic, energy, and environmental crises that define the 21st century. We envision a world of resilient communities and re-localized economies that thrive within ecological bounds.
Climate change, the end of cheap fossil fuels, and our growth-dependent global economy are creating challenges of a scale and complexity never before seen. These unprecedented challenges call for wholly new approaches.
Post Carbon Institute has gathered 29 of the world’s leading experts to point the way forward through a systems oriented, interdisciplinary, and collaborative approach. Through strong partnerships with the Transition Initiative movement and other leading innovators, we work to transform lives and communities through a powerful combination of integrated thinking and replicable direct action. These symbiotic relationships among on-the-ground leaders and grassroots organizers provide the opportunity to immediately implement and test generated ideas and strategies.
The Institute has developed a number of programs and initiatives that further its mission. Visit our program page to learn more.
See also: Paul Tolme. 2010-05-14. National Wildlife Federation. “The Dirty Truth Behind Clean Natural Gas”.
See also: Flavin, C., and S. Kitasei. The Role of Natural Gas in a Low-Carbon Energy Economy. Briefing paper. Natural Gas and Sustainable Energy Initiative. Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute, 2010. (PDF, 617kb)
Read this assessment by Robert W. Howarth, of Cornell University, who writes, “natural gas is far less attractive than other fossil fuels in terms of the consequences for global warming.”
See: Natural Gas Drillers Protest Nomination of Fracking Critics for EPA Review Panel
See: Chesapeake Energy Flares Barnett Shale Gas Well in Trinity Trail
See: Chesapeake Energy – Natural Gas: Fueling America’s Future
See: Haynesville Shale Natural Gas Fracturing Job
See: Natural Gas Drilling Threatens Communities in Northeastern United States
See: Plan to send fracking wastewater near Keuka Lake is abandoned | stargazette.com | Star-Gazette
See: Storing Hydrofracking Wastewater near Keuka Lake
See: Natural Gas Firms Cited for “Significant Non-Compliance With Auburn Sewer Use Law”
See: Gas industry approach would torpedo Barnett Shale study
See: WATER: Hundreds turn out to oppose wastewater facility – Corning, NY – The Corning Leader
