There will be—profit?

One has to wonder sometimes about the role of coincidence in human affairs. Readers might recall how the 1979 premiere of the nuclear-meltdown movie “The China Syndrome” was followed, only a few days later, by the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. So what’s to be made of the arising of the gas/oil drilling issue here in the Upper Delaware so close to the emergence of the Daniel Day-Lewis blockbuster, “There Will Be Blood?”

Besides graphically illustrating how gruesomely things can go wrong when dealing with natural forces, the film is also a cautionary tale illustrating how greed can warp perceptions and priorities, and lead one to sacrifice one’s identity, one’s sanity and even one’s very humanity.

But it is a morally ambiguous tale as well—and as the editorial in The River Reporter on January 31, “Get poor slow,” pointed out, the issues in our local situation also do not lend themselves easily to pictures of black and white. Nonetheless, to me it is also a reminder that the history of petrochemical exploration in this country and around the world has been peppered with tales of deception manipulation, corruption and scandal from Teapot Dome to the present day.

In short, we should remember that a corporation, particularly one in search of extracted wealth, should not be trusted any further than it can be thrown. Citizens owe it to themselves, not to mention their children, their communities and their descendants, to get all the information available to them before making decisions that will alter the landscape irretrievably for generations to come. After all, once the resources are gone, a corporation can pull up stakes and move on—but the ecology and culture of this place cannot. The legacy of exploration and extraction will be long lasting.

How can we hold corporations responsible and accountable, and make sure they will follow through on their high-sounding promises to exercise care and caution? Most corporations, particularly nowadays, recognize few if any incentives to protect anything beyond the immediate financial interests of their shareholders.

Hmmm… shareholders… Isn’t that the one responsibility that corporate bean-counters do constantly and consistently worry about, the one thing they must take seriously their fiduciary responsibility toward their shareholders, or to use another word, investors?

So maybe we need to recognize something: we are being asked, all of us, this entire community, to invest a great deal toward the possibility of somebody else making a fortune. We are being asked to put many things at risk—our land, the character of our area, the health of ourselves and our children—for the sake of these companies.

I think the least we can do is demand stock. Lots of it.

Both individual landowners and affected municipalities should be holding out for non-trivial amounts of voting stock in any company that wishes to take what we have and run off with it. You deserve a voice in the corporation’s decisions, and a piece of the corporation’s pie. A corporation that is truly willing to make a long-term commitment to our area won’t even blink twice at the suggestion.

As you might guess, I am skeptical that any of these corporations would be willing to make such a commitment—but I’m willing to be proved wrong. Let’s talk about it Friday night, February 22, at the Delaware Youth Center in Callicoon at 7:00 p.m. Ben Price of Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund ( celdf.org ) is a dynamic speaker, and I guarantee you will learn things you didn’t know.

- SKip Mendler