I learned exactly one useful thing from Michael Lynch’s post at Forbes on the EPA’s report on fracking which gave the practice a tentative go-ahead. It’s an acronym to put on the shelf next to NIMBY: BANANA. Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything.
However, I have a question. While I suspect there are some people who actually believe that (after all, for any given blame-fool idea there’s somebody somewhere who believes it), how many are there and how influential are they?
Even if it doesn’t destroy the environment, it does distort the scenery, makes noise, adds lots of truck traffic and is smelly. I can certainly see some neighborhoods not wanting it around, or most any other industry that does the same. Even in Texas some cities have passed laws to try to eliminate fracking in their vicinity. (And the state is passing laws to say they can’t do that. So much for local govt primacy.)
Steve
We have never had local government primacy in the United States, steve. The states have always been sovereign and county and city governments derive their powers from the state. Counties, cities, and other governmental entities within states are municipal corporations operating under charter from the state.
Isn’t BANANA basically the argument against the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository? And against building anything in any desert?