The Southern Tier of New York stretches roughly from an area just southeast of Buffalo to the edge of the Catskills. It is an area from which industry fled starting around the time of the Depression, when running water was no longer the primary source of power for industry. Now, the area has a chance of making a comeback, according to this article excerpted below, in diary.
Excerpt:
Gas-drilling official wants quick state action on permits
By Jay Gallagher • Albany Bureau • October 16, 2008
The state should act quickly to permit gas exploration in the Southern Tier before a better opportunity for the companies presents itself elsewhere, an official of a gas exploration company said yesterday.
"Right now is the time we can get an reasonable return on our investment," said Tom Price, president of Chesapeake Energy, one of the nation's largest independent gas exploration companies. "That changes every day. It changes every month."
Price made his remarks after testifying before an Assembly committee looking at the environmental impacts of drilling for natural gas in the Southern Tier. Exploration companies have leased the rights to broad swaths of land in the region under which lies the Marcellus shale formation, which industry officials say could be the biggest natural gas field in the country.
While its supporters see a potential bonanza, bringing billions of dollars and thousands of jobs to the economically depressed region, opponents are concerned about the environmental impact.
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"One never knows whether or not all of a sudden whether or not there is going to be a big discovery somewhere else or whether or not some would say, 'Gosh, you know what? It's just too much trouble to try to drill any wells there.'"
He added, "I don't want to say it's now or never, but here is an extraordinary opportunity for us to get this right with our elected officials."
Most of the 14 lawmakers who attended the hearing wanted reassurances that the wells wouldn't poison groundwater or otherwise hurt the environment.
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Later, he said, "The wells will be productive for decades. They (drillers) obviously have to be good neighbors."
Price described the wells to lawmakers as "surgical operations" that will provide "clean economic growth with no state subsidies."
Facts:
- Natural gas burns cleanly;
- The area badly needs jobs and money;
- It's near major markets like NYC;
- It's safer than bringing explosive liquified natural gas tankers to New York Harbor; and
- Buying domestically is better than buying from the Arabs, both for foreign policy reason and to preserve government revenues and private jobs.
Drilling is progressive, and helps poor and middle class people. This is not the arctic. Sarah Palin would not approve.
This can be done, should be done and must be done, and now!!!