Pittsburgh councilman wants to protect city against drilling

I feel the earth move under my feet. I feel the sky tumbling down. Not because of the drilling next door. But rather because of the talk of 'rights' from a member of Pittsburgh City Council.

Pittsburgh councilman wants to protect city against drilling 'Rights precede the state,' he said. 'Rights precede government. Rights precede state statues and are superior to them.'

Rights, liberties, freedom! Yes.

But, as usual, I'm not certain that this is what we really need.

It is very hard to give rights yet insure that government grow and block things from happening with blanket denials by law under all conditions.

If it makes sense to drill in the city, then let's do it. I do worry about the lack of rights for property owners to sue for damages when an industry causes harm to a neighborhood.

Mostly, on a basic level of city leadership, here they go again. People on city council are hell bent on pushing legislation that begs for lawsuits. Bubble bills, bar saturations, and now no drilling ordinances have put the city on the pathway of frustration where only the lawyers get rich while the residents and citizens are left to pay the bill.

In other news, City Council's Patrick Dowd is looking for a project so big that it will be impossible to pay for in 50 years, like NASA's space station, a Pittsburgh canal to link Homewood to Hazelwood, or else an underwater amusement park (think Kennywood at the Point but 100 foot deep).

Sale of parking could aid other projects: "Councilman Patrick Dowd said the money should be allocated to the pension fund, used to retire debt or spent on a capital project so big that it couldn't be tackled with a normal 30-year bond issue. In other words, he said, the project must be worth giving up parking assets for 50 years."

Another blog thread on same topic: http://pghcomet.blogspot.com/2010/08/gasburgh-exploring-no.html