Pete Grannis, “the (New York) commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation since 2007, was fired Thursday by Gov. David Paterson for what a state source ascribed to “poor performance and insubordination.”” click here for more. In reality, he was fired for raising questions surrounding the firing of 200 other DEC workers in New York State’s recent purging of opposition to natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. more here.
In other drilling news, the Bureau of Land Management is opening lands in the West to oil drilling. This week, the BLM’s Washington, D.C., Office has completed its review of three nominations for oil shale Research, Development, and Demonstration (RD&D) leases in Colorado and Utah. These second-round leases would allow the proponents to test the feasibility of various oil shale recovery technologies on public lands in the two states. The nominations will now be forwarded to the agency’s Colorado and Utah State Offices for the next phase in the review process. See the whole story here
Meanwhile, Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Thomas recently appeared at a Koch Industries shindig soon after the Supreme Court handed down a major decision on campaign finance law that Koch Industries quickly utilized, which states that corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money on federal elections. Koch Industries is an energy company that deals with minerals, refining, etc., and it is also the second largest private corporation in the US behind Cargill (the multinational agribusiness conglomerate) and it spreads its money far and wide (on conservative issues).