Senator Gillibrand comes to town

The economy, gas drilling, farmers and casinos

By FRITZ MAYER

BETHEL, NY — People who closely follow Senator Kirsten Gillibrand are aware of her positions and priorities, but she revealed a bit more at a question-and-answer session at the Events Gallery at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on January 15, before a crowd of about 150 people.

The crowd learned that Gillibrand will have an important role in developing regulations covering derivatives, those mysterious instruments that played an important role in bringing the world to the brink of financial collapse. That’s because she is a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, which has authority over derivatives because “way back when, it was really only farmers that traded in corn futures, and so now the commodities and futures exchange is still regulated by the ag committee,” she said. She added that her 15 years as a securities lawyer will allow her to provide some leadership during the debate about regulating the financial industry.

Another area where she said her background will be helpful is in gas drilling, because she has experience in dealing with practices that could potentially harm the environment. When she was a member of the house representing the 20th congressional district, which includes several counties along the Hudson River, there was the huge issue of ground water that had been contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

Gillibrand said, “I can tell you how unnerving it is and how frightening it is for families to be told you have PCBs in your ground water, ‘oh but don’t worry, it’s not very high.’ Okay, so if you’re a mom, how high are the PCBs when I bathe my child, how high are the PCBs when I give her drinking water? It’s not an acceptable answer.” She said the gas in the Marcellus Shale can only be exploited if it can be done without polluting drinking water and the environment.

On a related issue, Bruce Ferguson, one of the founders of Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, asked if she would become a co-signer of Senator John Kerry’s bill, the Endocrine Disruption Prevention Act. Endocrine disruptors are present in fracking fluids and are also found in various other products, such as household cleaners and sunscreens. In recent years, scientists have found that endocrine disruptors, even in tiny amounts, can damage growth and development in humans and animals. Gillibrand said that she hadn’t seen the bill yet, but that she suspected that she would support it.

On the issue of casinos, Gillibrand repeated her position that they would be good for the county, and she has asked Ken Salazar, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, to change the regulations regarding off-reservation casinos, which prevent tribes from opening casinos in Sullivan County.

In response to a question posed by Luiz Aragon, commissioner of the Sullivan County Division of Planning and Environmental Management, Gillibrand said her office would help in a effort to bring a creamery to the county to process the dairy products produced here, and she responded similarly to a request from county chairman Jonathan Rouis for help on securing a final grant for the construction of the proposed red-meat facility in Liberty.