More than one group with property rights

To the editor:

Noel van Swol could teach a master class in cheap demagoguery. Per Sandy Long’s article in the May 14 edition of The River Reporter, The Lion of Long Eddy disagrees with the Upper Delaware Council’s (UDC) position on gas exploration and drilling. But rather than state his case rationally, he goes on to compare the organization to Hugo Chavez’s socialist Venezuela and then, in the next breath, to the Soviet Union.

After these baseless and absurd comparisons, he threatens to expose the UDC to the journalistic rigors of the Fox News Network, a place where baseless and absurd accusations are the coin of the realm.

I have to take Mr. van Swol at his word when he says that he represents the owners of 70,000 acres. I represent no one but myself, but I know of many property owners and neighbors who are gravely concerned about the prospect of gas exploration and of living downwind and downstream from a process that is noisy, destructive, disruptive and toxic.

We have property rights too. And we exercised our freedom of choice to buy homes and become citizens and residents in a region associated with a national park, next to a river designated wild and scenic by the federal government. No river can remain wild or scenic for very long when sullied by the rapacious process of gas extraction. Van Swol’s apoplectic rants do no favors to the cause of private property rights. His rhetoric and attitudes link free enterprise to a philosophy that is short-sighted, self-aggrandizing and belligerent.

If Mr. van Swol wants to live in a wasteland befouled by the “free” exploration of natural resources, I suggest he move to Wyoming, where he and Dick Cheney can watch Fox News together.

Firestorm? Lawsuits?

To the editor:

By taking a position identifying gas drilling as incompatible with the Upper Delaware Corridor, the Upper Delaware Council (UDC) met its responsibility. The “firestorm” only exists in minds that are intent upon exploitation, to use Mr. van Swol’s own word. “Lawsuits” are tools used to outmaneuver opposition. Mention of cooperation and further discussion does not diminish such an ominous threat.

With 70,000 acres or so on one side and 80,000 acres on the other controlled by landowners with eyes on fast money, odds are not great for those opposed. Thankfully, the UDC took a stance to warn that the fracking, the violation of sensitive watersheds, damage to roads, soil erosion and the non-accountability for chemicals used in the process are all most certainly incompatible with the integrity of what some of us value most. Aside from potential for negative impact, the fact remains that we lack required manpower needed for oversight in carrying out whatever safeguards might be permitted by law. And, if manpower is increased, money to pay for it will inevitably come from the pockets of those on both sides of this controversy.

Though he laments that we live in a free society, Mr. van Swol is quick to label a simple statement of truth as a “taking.” Do the like-minded landowners, whose control covers 150,000 acres, object to the statement or do they feel threatened by whatever influence the UDC’s position might have in protecting our great resources? Is only this majority allowed any say? Coming from someone who sounds more than ready to “take” from the land in a way that might irreparably damage it (and please forgive me Mr. van Swol if you have already considered the alternatives), I would hardly say the argument and your indignation hold water—pun intended.

In defense of tea parties

To the editor:

This is a rebuttal to the Alfred Lees letter to the editor in which he stated: Let’s start with the best editorial on the recent ‘tea parties’ lunacy I’ve seen anywhere. Sometimes from a distance, one’s fellow citizens seem like lunatics from another planet, and this was certainly my impression when reports of these mindless “tax protests” reached me abroad. Your reasoned response, ideally supported by the three graphs on U.S. GDP growth and unemployment, restore a sense of balance. Thank you.”

I am a U.S. citizen and can trace my roots on the Odom side of my family back to the early settlements in Norfolk, VA in the late 1600s. It is not funny to me or lunacy that people from both political parties are getting upset with how the Republican-led Bush Administration and our current Democrat-led government are destroying the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the Holy Bible and stepping back from protecting Israel from another holocaust.

If we don’t prayerfully speak up now, we will find ourselves over-taxed without proper representation and labeled ignorant lunatics, then later jailed for disagreeing with same-sex marriage and abortion and for believing in a literal creation and that there is only one way to heaven. We need more tea parties. In God we trust? One nation under God?

John (JP) Pasquale

A mea culpa on gasoline prices

To the editor:

Without question, corn-based ethanol should become a thing of the past, and the price manipulation that makes the energy market go round these days—I emailed Washington about both issues months ago, but has anybody listened?—should be put under the microscope once and for all.

But to a certain degree, I’m as guilty as the next gal or guy for the recent rise in gasoline prices. Like so many of my fellow New Yorkers, I stuck close to home all fall and winter, thumbing my nose at the Exxons and Chevrons of the world, because I’d been able to manage on one trip to the supermarket every 14 days instead of every seven.

No, I’m certainly not planning to drive to San Francisco, or even Niagara Falls, anytime soon. But rather than garaging the car—with umpteen places I want to go and neat things I want to do regionally to reward myself, now that it’s finally May, soon-to-be-June—whenever I see the price of gasoline inching up, I rush into a gas station and fill up, hoping I’ve found the biggest bargain in town.

Certainly better than being stricken with swine flu, spring fever among drivers like me has nevertheless contributed to the upward spiral in the price of gasoline plaguing us now.

Susan Kross

Enough with the barnstorming

To the editor:

As I write this at 8:30 a.m., the Upper Delaware River Valley has begun its third day of assault by stunt planes. Last year, this curiosity began with the occasional small plane flying low over the valley. That ramped up to a small plane every hour. And then it came to fruition with what seems like WWII fighter plane jamborees, in which small planes circle the valley like gas-guzzling mosquitoes.

Clearly, I’m not a fan. In this day and age of gas shortages and tight wallets, I can think of nothing more wasteful and obnoxious than a small private plane spinning in circles over our homes for fun. And I’m not the only one. Every single person I’ve spoken to also finds them an invasion of space and peace. In other words, if you’ve seen them you hate them; and so, I must ask: Why are these planes allowed to circle and swoop over our homes with impunity?

Yes, I know, there’s an argument for private rights, and anybody can use his or her land for whatever purpose they want, including a landing strip. But what about my rights? I didn’t sign on to live in a flight path and I resent that one can be introduced into my life without so much as a town meeting or even a flyer hung up at Pecks.

There’s really just something wrong with this setup. Surely, the residents of this valley have some rights when it comes to invasive pests and noise pollution. The FAA requires the tail number from a plane to discover its place of origin. So, to anybody else who grits their teeth when WWII starts at 8:00 a.m., get out your binoculars and maybe, together, we can at least find out where these beasts are coming from.

Jen McGlashan

Congressman Carney: protect Appalachian streams and mountains

To the editor:

Every week in the coalfields of central and southern Appalachia, coal companies use the explosive equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb to get at coal that lies hundreds of feet underneath some of the world’s oldest and most beautiful mountains. More than 500 mountains, comprising more than one million acres of hardwood forest, have been destroyed by mountaintop removal.

The vast amount of toxic rubble created in these mountaintop removal operations is then dumped directly into adjacent river valleys. Nearly 2,000 miles of American headwater streams in the region have been buried and polluted by toxic mining waste, all to provide less than five percent of America’s electricity.

Mountaintop removal does not happen in Pennsylvania, but the dumping of the waste has a negative impact on our watersheds. Fortunately, ending the disgraceful practice of mountaintop removal will fall to the men and women who

represent Pennsylvania in the halls of Congress.

Mountain advocates hope that the U.S. House of Representatives will look at the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310) later this year, where Keystone state Democrats, such as Congressmen Carney, Holden, and Altmire, will play a pivotal roll when the bill comes before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Pennsylvania is a coal state, and coal will continue to be a part of our energy picture while we eventually transition away from fossil fuels. However, the future lies with clean energy, not with mountaintop removal-mined coal. We need to responsibly move away from mountaintop removal in the United States. The House of Representatives should immediately pass the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310) with the full support of the Pennsylvania delegation. The Senate should do its part by passing the Appalachia Restoration Act with the full support of Senator Casey and Senator Specter.