May 11, 2019 Nancy Ancrum – Editorial Page Editor The Miami Herald Rosemary O’Hara – Editorial Page Editor The Sun Sentinel

May 11, 2019

Nancy Ancrum – Editorial Page Editor

The Miami Herald

Rosemary O’Hara – Editorial Page Editor

The Sun Sentinel

RE: Not quite a Damascus moment but, in any event, a sus ordenes

Fair Ladies,

I was not knocked off my horse to become Pro Choice. Rather, it was an act by our caring, compassionate Governor, the signing into law – no executive order for him – of the act passed by the Legislature enabling, at local option, the arming of school teachers. And, on top of the that, the law pays homage to the Constitution, particularly the 10^th Amendment.

If  deplorably prototypical Red-Neck, Cracker Counties wants its teachers to carry BARs, bazookas, and Dirty Harry revolvers, it does not mean that Progressive, Multi-Culturally inclusive, manatee suffrage supporting, 4^th and 5^th trimester abortion clinics counties must follow. [Speaking of multi-culturalism, the weapon of choice for the Mossad used to be a short barreled .22 caliber revolver with L.R. ammo. 2 in the ear and slip the roscoe back into your fanny pack.

But that’s not why I write

As my introduction suggests, I hereby volunteer my services as the debate on oil & gas drilling, both on-shore and off, heats up.

Herewith, an informal c.v. of my experience in the business.

I fracked my first oil well in January, 1974 in Duval County, Texas.

 [As an aside, Duval County was where Abe Fortas, Esq, “found” 300 votes, and would you believe that they were in alphabetical order? I would since I am from Hudson County. That put “Landslide” Lyndon into the Senate and then into the White House and then into 2 wars, neither of which ended successfully, with one of them still being fought. Architecturally, it is significant because it was where the idea for the Vietnam Wall in Washington came alive.]

I participated in drilling at least 100 O&G wells, mainly in Texas. In 1980 I became President of an operating company. In 1983 I purchased that company. I had production in Ohio, Wyoming, Texas, and New Mexico. In addition, I had 7 operating coal mines in Eastern Kentucky plus I was CFO of a publicly owned coal company on West Virginia. In the years coincident with those of the Great Reagan, I “created” 400 jobs. I am particularly proud of that because in the same time frame the net job “creation” for the companies listed on the Dow Jones industrial Average was zero.

I have sold oil at prices ranging from $2.75 to $101 a barrel. Gas prices have ranged from .40 cents to $13.10 per MMCF.

But I am sure you will oppose drilling, either wet or dry, anywhere on the planet but particularly in Florida.

 [Another aside. When the Miami Herald had its World HQ hard by Biscayne Bay, I used to threaten Tom Fiedler with an off-shore drilling rig 500 yards East of the corporate aerie, the one where all those really swell modern American Liberal editorials were spawned.]

Herewith, an action plan for those secretly opposed to the Industrial Revolution, or not so secretly if we consider AOC, a seriously “wretched unidea’d girl”, as Eliot would have described her, and her “12 years if we are lucky” only if we raise taxes to at least 105% right now. God’s Holy Trousers, but she couldn’t pour piss out of a boot.

Logic would dictate that if you oppose the way society fuels the benefits of 1^st World living that you eschew some of the delicacies.

#1 – Turn of all you’re A/Cs

#2 – Public transit, bikes, skateboards, quads of steel are the only accepted forms of transit to and from work.

#3 – Ban all plastic, particularly from the healthcare business.

#4 - Pick 5 weekdays each month and turn off all electricity

#5 - No cold beer.

#6 – Only power produced by solar, wind, tidal, or the good intentions of the climate battalion of the Social Justice Warriors regiment will be allowed.

Fracking has enabled this country to become not only energy independent but to become the arbiter world wide of production and price. If OPEC is Dracula it is about to be hit with a brilliant sun rise and fusillade of silver bullets, hopefully fired by teachers qualifying for expert.

I suggest that if you stay with your anti-rational, indeed completely bonkers energy policy, you select Ned Lud as your spokesman and BaBa Lysenko as your scientific advisor. Written as I wear my PROUD GLOBAL WARMER cap, with my copy of The Population Bomb by my side, and looking forward to fondling my growing collection of plastic straws before I launch some of them into the Intercoastal.

Kevin Smith

WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET

PS – And thank God for Global Warming! What do you think ended the last Ice Age and gave us the Renaissance?