Recent editorials from West Virginia newspapers:
March 10
Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail on how Marcellus gas can make the world a safer place:
Right now, Europe would love nothing more than to stop Vladimir Putin from reassembling the old Evil Empire of the Soviet Union
But Putin has Europe cornered this winter. Russia supplies 36 percent of the natural gas consumed by Germans.
Twelve other European countries are even more dependent with the three Baltic states and Finland receiving all of their natural gas from Mother Russia. It is difficult to stand up to someone when you are shivering from the cold.
West Virginia can help. The U.S. Energy Information Agency estimates that West Virginia and its neighbors are sitting on 141 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Marcellus shale formation.
Surely some natural gas from West Virginia and other sources in the United States can be sold and shipped to Europe to end the Russian monopoly.
But federal law restricts exports of natural gas, as House Speaker John Boehner pointed out in a column in the Wall Street Journal.
“These policies have amounted to our nation imposing economic sanctions on itself - sentencing consumers in the U.S. and abroad to higher prices and slower growth while ceding the international energy marketplace to countries such as Russia, Venezuela and Iran,” Boehner wrote.
Exporting natural gas to Europe would benefit West Virginians. State government receives about $175 million a year in severance taxes from oil and gas. Increased sales abroad would increase those tax revenues. The state already exports more than $7 billion a year worth of coal.
Boehner called upon President Obama to approve the Keystone pipeline, lift his restrictions on oil and gas from federal lands and expedite applications to export liquefied natural gas.
Ending the Russian monopoly on natural gas throughout central and eastern Europe would allow those nations to be truly independent of Putin and Russia. Sales of natural gas from the United States to Europe would hurt Moscow in the pocketbook as half of Russian tax revenues come from oil and gas exports. The soft power of exporting energy would be far more effective than the current timid diplomacy displayed by Europe and Washington.
Drill, baby, drill - and make the world a safer and more peaceful place.
Online:
https://www.charlestondailymail.com
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March 11
The Herald-Dispatch, Huntington, W.Va., on single notification rule on data breaches likely the best option:
If your personal information stored by a retailer somehow falls into unauthorized hands, how would you be notified? Or would you be notified at all?
The answer may well depend on where you live. And that’s not a very good answer.
The issue has gained added attention in recent months following two well-publicized data breaches at two national retailers. Target disclosed last December that 40 million credit and debit card accounts had been exposed between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15, while Neiman Marcus has said that it had a data breach involving 1.1 million credit and debit cards.
The potential impact for those card-holders is that they could become victims of identity theft and outsiders could basically steal money from those accounts.
In such instances as these, and in cases involving far fewer accounts, one of the chief questions is how quickly and in what manner should retailers let affected customers know of data breaches. As it stands now, there is no national standard for notifying customers, leaving any requirements to states for setting the rules.
Unfortunately, a few states, including Kentucky, have no laws on the books requiring notification, although a bill that would set standards is up for final action now in the Kentucky Legislature. In other states, the requirements can vary widely.
Both West Virginia and Ohio have notification statutes, and they are essentially the same.
With variations from state-to-state, there is an increasing call for setting a national standard, which makes sense. The key, though, is that any national standard must have customers’ interests as the main priority, rather than those of businesses.
The prospect of a national standard has groups on both sides of the issue concerned. Consumer groups worry that a nationwide rule would be less stringent than some of the tougher state laws now in force, while businesses don’t want a standard they would consider overly burdensome.
Congress has tried to tackle this problem in the past with no success. However, the recent episodes exposing the information of tens of millions people makes it clear that lawmakers should ensure that a national standard is put in place soon.
Online:
https://www.herald-dispatch.com
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March 8
The Journal, Martinsburg, W.Va., on U.S. must tread slowly in Russia-Ukraine dispute:
Vows by Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama to line up a solid international front against Russia over its intervention in Ukraine may have to be rethought. Russian leader Vladimir Putin already has pulled the rug out from under that strategy.
British leaders seem to have sensed that already, in refusing to jump on the U.S. bandwagon concerning diplomatic and economic action against Russia.
Consider Putin’s position and actions during the past week:
Even as he was smiling to crowds during the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, not far from Ukraine, Putin was preparing a strategy to deal with protesters who, at that time, threatened to topple their nation’s regime. Because that government was friendly to Moscow, replacing it was a blow to Putin’s goal of making Ukraine what would amount to a Russian dependency.
But when he sent troops into Ukraine, Putin directed them to the Crimean peninsula - an area thick with ethnic Russians who fear the new order in Kiev. Putin can make an excellent case for rescuing a people in danger.
Then, on Monday, Putin canceled major military maneuvers planned by the Russian armed forces near the Ukrainian border. By doing that, he can claim to be the world leader seeking to defuse tensions.
Obama and Kerry may have painted themselves into a corner in terms of rallying international support against Russia. U.S. strategy needs to be reconsidered to guard against a major error.
Online:
https://journal-news.net
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