[naviga:h3]Cheer [/naviga:h3]

Happy New Year, Butler County! Let’s set our expectations high in 2017.

The natural gas industry is about to take off, now that the OPEC market glut has been broken and a collapsed energy market stabilizes in coming months. Marcellus fracking activity could spark a commercial and economic renaissance in the coming year. New development in Butler Mars, Cranberry, Butler and Jackson townships and other locations should benefit from increased gas production.

This could be the year that brings a Stanley Cup and Vince Lombardi Trophy to Pittsburgh. There could even be an outside shot at an unprecedented trifecta with a World Series. It could happen if the 2017 Pirates resemble the 2015 Pirates and not the 2016 Pirates. That goes double for outfielder Andrew McCutcheon — if the Pirates don’t trade him first.

From the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival to the North Washington Rodeo, to the PyroFest and medieval Pennsic Wars at Cooper’s Lake, to the hockey tournaments at the UPMC Lemieux Center and baseball at Kelly Automotive Park, let all these and other events prosper and grow in 2017 as they draw prestige and attention to the county as a great place to live and visit.

[naviga:h3]Jeer [/naviga:h3]

President Barack Obama’s string of executive orders in the waning days of his presidency can only be described as petulant flailings of a lame duck. Obama’s unilateral actions appear designed to box in President-elect Donald Trump and complicate Trump’s launch of his administration.

Obama’s decision Thursday to sanction Russian entities for election-related hacking is just the latest obstacle he placed in Trump’s way. Previously the Obama administration allowed the U.N. Security Council to condemn Israeli settlement activity — something that could have a lasting impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Obama has also permanently banned oil and gas drilling across large swaths of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, closed off 1.6 million acres of Western land to development; scrapped the last vestiges of a registration system used largely on Muslim immigrants, and ordered the resettling of as many as 19 of the approximately 60 remaining detainees at the Guantánamo federal prison in Cuba.

Add to his actions Obama’s remark that he’d beat Trump if he were allowed to run for a third term.

How do such words or actions dignify the presidency or serve the good of the nation?

[naviga:h3]Cheer [/naviga:h3]

Cheers to you hardy souls and infirm minds who feel compelled to greet the new year by jumping into an ice-covered body of water.

Apparently this is a shared psychosis, as more than 300 or 350 hardy souls are expected for the Parker Polar Bear Club’s 11th annual New Year’s Day Plunge.

The insanity starts at 2 p.m. Sunday at Parker’s Landing on the Allegheny River. Registration is at 11 a.m.

And it’s not enough to gather, lemminglike, for this exercise in instability. They make a party of it, with T-shirt for the first 350 plungers, plus food vendors, a roaring bonfire, refreshments and entertainment.

And they raise money for charitable causes, which sort of justifies the significance of defiantly thumbing one’s nose at Old Man Winter. Proceeds benefit Cano Cares, Hunt of a Lifetime, Boys and Girls Club Along the Allegheny, area fire departments and local children in need.

So, chilly cheers and goose bumps to you shivering nut jobs, and Happy New Year to all.

—TAH