So far this winter has been cold with plenty of snow. This means excessive amount of cancellations, and 2 hour delays. The cancelled days are made up at the end of the year, although meaningless, as studies have already ended.

Students go to school just to meet state requirements. Delays do not have to be made up, as they get credit for a full day. Blue Ridge ranked 30th out of 37 school districts in northeastern Pennsylvania in SAT scores. Nothing to be proud of. The school year should be extended till the end of June, maybe then the students would get 180 full days of education.  But, heaven forbid,the teachers would have to work more than 180 days a year. The real losers are the students.

Sincerely,

Peter Moxen

New Milford

American energy companies are burning off millions of dollars' worth of natural gas every day -- on purpose. In North Dakota alone, rigs destroy almost $50 million worth of gas per month.

This waste is unfortunate. And it's the consequence of bad policy.

International buyers are eager to purchase American gas. But domestic producers can't get it to them because they lack the proper pipelines, refineries, and other transportation technologies. This infrastructure doesn't exist because federal officials won't give developers permission to build it.

This obstructionism needs to end.

The process of burning off excess natural gas is known as "flaring." North Dakota is the flaring capital of the country, with the amount of gas getting burned every year tripling since 2011. Wyoming and Texas also flare off a lot of gas; they're each responsible for about 20 percent of the nation's total annual flaring.

Typically, firms flare small amounts to relieve pressure in their rigs and to eliminate gas if needed for safety. But today, a huge amount of gas is getting flared -- roughly a billion dollars' worth every year -- because firms simply can't sell it.

It's not a problem of demand. There's ample appetite for their product, especially overseas. Indeed, domestic supply will exceed domestic demand within the decade. Meanwhile, international demand for American gas is on track to jump by 65 percent by 2040.

The energy industry has invested in building transportation channels to move this gas from the drilling locations to foreign markets. Oil and gas firms have already plowed $3 billion into Bakken infrastructure alone.

Given the magnitude of the gas boom, producers want to build more infrastructure -- but the Obama administration won't let them.

In order to ship gas to foreign markets, firms use export terminals. Only a handful of such terminals are in operation. The industry has submitted 26 applications to build new ones. And all of those applications are now stuck in the Department of Energy's approval channel. Some have been pending for almost 3 years.

Worse still, the Environmental Protection Agency drags out the approval process for new gas pipelines. The average pipeline application now takes up to 18 months to get finalized.

If federal officials reform these approval channels and allow for more American gas infrastructure, the benefits would be enormous. Boosting gas exports would create some 452,000 new jobs and $73 billion in new growth over the next two decades.

Flaring doesn't just deprive the economy; it also hurts the environment. While flaring is less harmful than letting the gas escape directly into the atmosphere, it still releases large amounts of emissions. Indeed, flaring in North Dakota alone creates one million cars' worth of emissions every year.

Some lawmakers have taken action to cut down on the bureaucratic delays. The House just passed a bill forcing the Department of Energy to accelerate the approval process for natural gas export terminals.

Passing this bill needs to be a national priority.

Critics claim that expanding natural gas exports will severely shrink domestic supply and drive up energy prices.

This fear is unfounded. Separate studies from the Brookings Institute, ICF Consulting, and the Department of Energy have all found that any price increase would be negligible.

Obstructionism is leading to billions worth of valuable natural gas literally going up in smoke. Removing delays hamstringing the construction of gas infrastructure will stop wasteful flaring, spur job creation, and help the environment.

Sincerely,

Chris Faulkner

EDITOR’S NOTE: Chris Faulkner is CEO of Breitling Energy Corp., author of "The Fracking Truth," and producer of the documentary, "Breaking Free: The Shale Rock Revolution."

The forty-niners said, “Thar’s gold in them thar hills.” But Big Pharma found that there's more gold in pills than hills. Many commonly prescribed pills are worth 10 times their weight in pure gold. Now the race is on to discover Ebola gold.

Drug kingpin Johnson & Johnson will invest $390 million to fast-track the development of an Ebola vaccine. Other pharmaceutical giants have joined the race spending millions more. Top prize is an anticipated $1 billion in the first year of marketing.

The deadly plague is spreading rapidly across western Africa. Guinea reports 1,000 deaths, Sierra Leone 1,500, and the toll in Liberia is 2,500. Comparing the number of infections with deaths gives a fatality rate between 70 percent to 90 percent.

Yet when infected health workers return to the US, the survival rate is 70 percent to 90 percent. Why is the mortality rate so high in Africa and so low in the US? To answer these questions we'll first take a look at living conditions in Africa and second, the high recovery rate in the U.S.

Africa is fertile ground for disease. The answer is graphic. In nations with Ebola hotspots, open defecation is the norm. Grassy fields serve as latrines. Forget about bathroom tissue. Hands are used to clean oneself. And one needn't look for soap and water.

The Ebola virus is spread through human fluids which include urine and feces. Drinking water is commonly contaminated with human waste and the Ebola virus.

To make a terrible situation atrocious, West Africans typically subsist on a substandard diet. In many cases, even a diet supplying sufficient calories is beyond the financial reach of many people.

Taken together, poor sanitation, lack of potable water, and inadequate nutrition, a person's immune system is severely debilitated leaving him open to all manner of infectious diseases.

But is an Ebola vaccine really what western Africa needs? Even if one is developed, will it have any impact on mortality or morbidity in Ebola hot spots?

Plainly speaking, what Sub-Saharan Africans desperately need is not a vaccine but outhouses with a population educated in the need for their use, access to potable water for drinking, cooking, and washing; and a diet providing adequate nutrition and calories.

Tragically, the pharmaceutical corporations choose to overlook the fundamental causes of disease in favor of a profit generating vaccine or an even more lucrative pill. It's profits before people.

The second question is why do the great majority of health workers recover so quickly when they return to the U.S.? There are two reasons.

First, infected health workers returning from Africa are hospitalized and treated for the symptoms of an Ebola infection. Ebola causes protracted vomiting and diarrhea which cause dehydration and mineral depletion. An intravenous drip of water and electrolytes cures both.

Second, even the immune system of a young, healthy adult can be weakened by a pathogenic overload. Such is the case with some volunteer Ebola fighters in Africa. When they return to the US, that overload is removed. Once again they have hygienic living conditions, pure water, and a good diet. As their immune systems begins to recover, so do they.

An innovative protocol involves taking plasma from a person who has recovered from Ebola. Antibodies to Ebola are then extracted from this plasma and given to someone with active Ebola. Proof that the human immune system is more than a match for the Ebola virus.

Yet the US remains fixated on a pharmaceutical approach to disease. But how effective is this?

The World Health Organization rated 191 nations on the general health of their populations. The US ranked No. 37---below Costa Rica. More revealing is the amount of money spent per capita. The US spent $8,200 per person, more than any other nation. Costa Rica, which, remember, ranked above the US, spent $1,200 per person.

Clearly, the US is getting more fissile than bang for its healthcare buck. Powerful evidence that the answer to regaining and maintaining health is not to be found in a man-made drug. The answer lies within us; our own robust immune system.

But where's the money in that?

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA