Over the last several years I've been excited to see the fracking energy revolution in our country. It's been a great benefit to the US by raising the standard of living and increasing energy independence. It's also giving me the personal satisfaction of once again seeing the Doomsday Prophets and the Peak Oil magpies proved wrong.
Despite all the benefits to individuals and our country, the Left has been rabidly opposed to fracking. I've been a bit baffled as to why, other than they can't stand to see people become independent and our country do well.
The hammer the Left has used to beat against fracking has been the usual Luddite environmental arguments, but the link between more, cheaper energy and global warming didn't seem strong enough to justify the zeal they have for shutting fracking down.
I've recently read a couple items that have made the reason more clear. The first is an excellent book by M Stanton Evans called, Stalins' Agents, about Soviet infilttration of FDR's government.
The second was an article I read in the Wall Street Journal this weekend which was about how Putin is running diplomatic circles around western politicians despite having a country on the decline. In the article it states:
But time isn't on Mr. Putin's side. Russia's failure since 1989 to build an effective economy keeps his reach short. U.S. diplomacy may be wobbly, but U.S. development of shale oil and gas attacks the core of Russia's strength. With the U.S. out of the gas-importing business, a lot more natural gas is on world markets, and Gazprom's OGZPY +0.82% customers are demanding better terms. Fracking hurts Mr. Putin in the wallet, and Russia has never had much cash to spare.
As I read this, the gong went off in my head that this sounded exactly like the tactics the Communists used in the 30's and 40's, when they used NGO's (front groups) and government infiltration to influence US policy to favor the USSR.
The article also states:
The Edward Snowden caper was a stunning Russian success—and an embarrassing U.S. failure. An old KGB hand, Mr. Putin knows that intelligence and propaganda were among the Soviet Union's greatest assets—and now, Russia's spooks and spinmeisters are back.
Is it a far stretch to believe that Russian intelligence, agents in the US, and fellow travellers are once again actively manipulating credulous and sympathetic government officials in subverting our own best interests in favor of once again propping up Russia? In light of the rabid attacks on fracking by the Left, it doesn't seem too far fetched.
