Wyoming and Texas

In continuing with my comparison of states (last night it was liberal Minnesota and right- wing Wisconsin), tonight I will discuss Texas and Wyoming.  

Wyoming is not a blue state.  In some counties it is difficult to find a registered Democrat.  The license plate has a cowboy on a bucking horse, and, for all I know, gun ownership is mandatory.  Nonetheless, Wyoming way ahead of Pennsylvania in its fracking regulations.

In 2010 Wyoming became the first state to require drilling companies to disclose the chemicals used in fracking.  A Times article on Nov. 23 (“Strong Rules on Fracking in Wyoming Seen as Model” by Kate Galbraith) quoted Republican Governor Matthew Mead as saying, “I am not going to accept the question of do you want a clean environment or do you want energy.  The fact is that in Wyoming, we want and need both.”

Get this.  A newly adopted water rule will require oil and gas companies to test wells or springs within a half mile of a drilling site, before and after drilling.  The tests will measure such items as bacteria, dissolved gasses like methane, and 20 chemical compounds.  Drilling companies must also monitor air pollution at drilling sites.  Wow.

And now Texas.  Members of the textbook review panel that looks at science books is concerned that the Genesis version of creation is slighted.  You know, the one that says a god created the world in six days, which evidently tired him out so much he had to rest on the seventh day.  I believe in this version fossils were put down by the devil (evidently also created by god) to confuse us.

Lordy, Lordy.