re: #221 freetoken

America - all fossil fuel, all the time:

CSM declares:

How I learned to stop worrying and love fracking

USA Today trumpets:

Energy primes US economy’s pump

Energy extraction does generate lots of jobs, at least in the short-to-mid term. And further making it difficult for the center-left to oppose is the fact that unions tend to like it. Even the SEIU can be somewhat mollified, since geologists and oil workers need places to stay and increased hotel and extended-stay occupancy means more staff and more money. For others like the Teamsters, big movable equipment means more use of trucks and thus more union jobs.

Part of the reason fracking is able to avoid being crippled by hostile legislation is that it provides benefits to groups across party lines.