Walker Promises To Create Jobs? You Gotta Be Fracking Kidding!

On Wednesday, Scott Walker gave another one of his stump campaign speeches disguised as a budget address.  One of his campaign promises was that he was really going to get serious this time about creating jobs in the state, even though the last two years is more than ample proof that he either doesn't know what he's doing or he's simply lying.

Sadly ironic, he gave his false promise of more jobs on the same day that we learned the go ahead was given for the loss of 600 jobs with the closing of the Kewaunee power plant.

Not coincidentally, those 600 jobs being lost is a direct result of Walker's "business friendly environment." The business that he's being overly friendly with is fracking:

Daniel Stoddard, senior vice president of nuclear operations at Dominion, declined to provide details about the negotiations toward a possible sale of Kewaunee.

The prospect of increased regulations, while a concern, wasn’t the main factor in the decision to permanently close Kewaunee.

“Certainly anything that impacts cost or increases costs doesn’t help the situation by any means,” said Stoddard. “But I can’t say that’s the primary driver.”

The plant has become uneconomical because of low natural gas prices, and the boom in domestic natural gas production tied to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Those low natural gas prices have prompted other utilities to shift more of their power generation fleets to natural gas from coal.

And thanks to Walker and the other Republicans that have allowed Big Energy to have their way with our state and country, these jobs losses - not to mention the poisoning of our air and water - is not the only thing we have to be worried about.

And now that they have a grip on our state, not only are they not going to let go, but they refuse to stop trying to claim larger and larger areas for their exploitation.

Karoli at Crooks & Liars has a very clear break down of two reports that just came out that show that fracking could lead to a bursting bubble, like the housing bubble did five years ago, which will send the entire economy into another tailspin:

It is with Matt's book in mind that I read two reports released today about fracking and Wall Street by the Post Carbon Institute and the Energy Policy Forum.

DeSmogBlog boils it down:

Together, the reports conclude that the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") boom could lead to a "bubble burst" akin to the housing bubble burst of 2008.

While most media attention towards fracking has focused on the threats to drinking water and health in communities throughout North America and the world, there is an even larger threat looming. The fracking industry has the ability - paralleling the housing bubble burst that served as a precursor to the 2008 economic crisis - to tank the global economy.

Playing the role of Cassandra, the reports conclude that "the so-called shale revolution is nothing more than a bubble, driven by record levels of drilling, speculative lease & flip practices on the part of shale energy companies, fee-driven promotion by the same investment banks that fomented the housing bubble..." a summary details. "Geological and economic constraints – not to mention the very serious environmental and health impacts of drilling – mean that shale gas and shale oil (tight oil) are far from the solution to our energy woes."

I'm certain these reports will be dismissed as the left-wing answer to right-wing climate change deniers. Before naysayers do that, they should consider the sources behind the report.

Isn't that just special?

First Walker sends Milwaukee County into an economic downfall. Then he takes the state down the same path of failure as he tries to fool himself into thinking he has a chance to be president. But even before the reality that he won't ever make it to the White House sinks in, he's already helping in another attempt to bring the world's economy crashing down.

Not that he cares.  As long his campaign donors get theirs, and give him his kickback, he doesn't see the problem.