Arguments against drilling continue to evolve and now consist of a "not in my backyard" plea of the mostly affluent to maintain the status quo. If you live upstate you know the status quo isn't working. The economy has been decimated by the recent recession. Jobs are gone, taxes are some of the highest in the nation, and services are less than desired.
The arguments as far as I can tell have evolved from aquifer pollution, too superficial water contamination, too decreased property values, too tourism, too scenic blight, too trucks ruining the roads. The truth lies somewhere in the middle, but the question should be do the ends justify the means?
I will have more to say on this, but will leave you with a quote from a recent article found in the Albany Times Union, "the average drilling complex used 8.4 million gallons of water per day of water in the Susquehanna River basin, comapared to 20 million per day for golf courses."
Perspective matters, I suppose!
I would ask anyone, including my co-bloggers living upstate, to comment on this. Aurelius, Thomas, Mr. K, this means you!
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It's been used as a bludgeon where I am. It's basically used as a way to stop energy development. People won't accept windmills because of NIMBY arguments and are scared out of their minds because of all the misconceptions of drilling.
ReplyDeleteAnother $50 billion for the Mideast, anyone?
"The arguments as far as I can tell have evolved from aquifer pollution, too superficial water contamination, too decreased property values, too tourism, too scenic blight, too trucks ruining the roads."
ReplyDeleteTo, not too.
Natural gas exploration is EXACTLY what the upstate NY economy needs right now, so it figures that the usual suspects are against it.
ReplyDeleteOver the last year or two, the itty-bitty Wellsboro & Corning railroad had gone from a little 4-axle, 800-HP switch engine to haul maybe 500 cars of freight a year to four 6-axle, 3000-HP SD40-2s to haul dedicated 60+ car trains of fracking sand for the northern tier of Pennsylvania each week....
So this begs the question- since drilling has been underway for at least the last 4 or 5 years in PA, has there been any of the Armageddon-esque predictions of premanantly tainted aquifers, townspeople stricken with cancer since then or whatever else the obstructionist contrarians have claimed would happen?