The lessons of history

To the editor:

In his letter in the February 11 issue of The River Reporter, New York State Senator John Bonacic expresses “outrage” at the idea of 9/11 terrorist trials being held in New York City or New York State, and contends that history compels us to hold such trials in military tribunals.

His letter reflects either a profound ignorance of recent history and legal precedent, or a deliberate attempt to inflame fear.

Ramzi Yousef, a coconspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was tried and convicted in a federal court. Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the “blind cleric,” was tried for plotting to blow up landmarks in NYC and was convicted in a civilian court. Disturbed Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh waged war on his own government and killed 168 people in an Oklahoma City Federal building. He was tried and convicted in a federal court.

According to the NYU Center on Law and Security (cited in a 2/15/10 New Yorker article by Jane Mayer), the Bush Administration tried more than 150 suspected terrorists in criminal courts.

Only three—all apprehended abroad—were tried and convicted by a military tribunal.

So, like a lot of right wing nonsense, Bonacic’s argument only makes sense when you completely disregard the facts. It saddens me that a local leader has lent his voice to a campaign of hysteria, disinformation and manufactured “outrage.”

People who believe in the Constitution and a system of law need to speak up when folks like Bonacic go so obviously astray. In this case, we have the facts, and history, on our side. But, as we’ve learned, that’s not always enough.

Sharing the wealth

To the editor:

Some years ago, I leased a parcel of land I own in western New York to a natural gas exploration company. As I recall it was a lease for four years. Many of my neighbors did the same. At that time, the drilling process was straight down, no horizontal process used or available. There was no gas discovered on my parcel, but a neighboring farmer was lucky. My land is woods and hilly while my neighbor’s well-site was smack in the center of his corn field and easier to get to.

If horizontal drilling had been available at that time, what assurance would I have had that the riches he enjoyed for the next several years was not, in fact, the result of this new technique actually taking gas right from under my feet?

I don’t pretend to know a lot about horizontal drilling (and only a little bit about the scary potential of fracking) but since horizontal drilling can reportedly reach for up to a half mile, isn’t this something for people with as little as, say, 100 acres to ponder before they sign for drilling rights? Just a thought.

[New York State law prohibits drillers from taking gas from under a property owner’s land unless that owner has agreed to sell the gas. However, if the owners of 60 percent of the land in an area called a drilling unit have agreed to sell their gas, then other landowners within the unit can be made to also sell their gas through a process called compulsory integration. – Ed.]

We need the economic boost

To the editor:

As a small business owner, I can attest to the state of the economy in Sullivan County. My business for 2009 was down over 22 percent from the previous year. And 2008 was also down from 2007. Because my revenues are derived almost entirely from other businesses in the area, it is a reflection of the state of the region’s poor economy.

It is obvious that our economy could use all the help it can get. Drilling activity for gas in the Marcellus Shale and subsequent production would provide a multiplier effect on the economy, while at the same time providing a needed, cleaner burning domestic alternative to oil and coal. Can we afford to throw away this opportunity?

Mr. Ramsay Adams, whom God has appointed “Keeper of the Mountains,” Protector of the Environment, Defender Against Casinos and stalwart against development at Belleayre, has stated, in an interview at the Albany demonstrations, that he does not wish that New York State “become an energy state like Texas, Colorado and West Virginia, and those are not pretty places.” Apparently Mr. Adams thinks the scenes in our area are just fine, with the ubiquitous overhead electrical and telephone lines, shabby homes, a sick economy and fleeing citizens, the result of high unemployment and high taxes.

One has to wonder.

A safety record you can count on

To the editor:

The controversy over producing natural gas from New York State’s tremendous Marcellus Shale reserves hit the state legislature in Albany big time on January 25.

As a participant supporting natural gas development and the new draft regulations being proposed by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), I was struck by the size of the crowds that turned out in favor of developing our gas reserves. Binghamton television station WBNG estimated that more than 700 people came from all over the southern tier and the Catskills to demonstrate their support for this new gas industry in a rally that took place in the pouring rain.

Given the scaremongering of the environmental extremists who have weighed in on this issue, the most important disclosure at this rally was the fact that more than 10,000 wells have been drilled in New York State over the last two decades under present regulations, with only one minor incident involving methane seepage, which was corrected within three days.

Contrary to the environmental hysteria being peddled as fact, this is a safety record all New Yorkers can be proud of and is a testament to the professionalism of the DEC and the high standards already incorporated into New York State law with respect to natural gas exploration and production. Ten-thousand-to-one odds and then only one minor incident? You can bet the farm on that safety record.

The bitterness of landowners over what is perceived to be a concerted effort to cheat them out of their chance to participate in the American Dream is reflected in many of the signs I saw in Albany, including one that said “My Land, My Gas, My Right” and another that said “Pay Me, Not OPEC.” But the most ominous one for incumbent politicians was a sign that said “Vote For the Gas Party In 2010,” meaning that property owners should only support politicians who support them.

However, there is a non confrontational alternative. Adoption of the draft DEC regulations is a compromise that all landowners and responsible environmentalists can live with. We went to Albany to underscore that fact.

Protecting the foodshed

To the editor:

When I first moved to the Catskills in 1990 there were billboards on Route 17 placed by a Hassidic group claiming that the messiah was on his way. My friends from the city who visited made snide remarks. Well, apparently the Lebavitch Hassidim were not the only group hoping that a messianic force would save Sullivan County. Landowners of all faiths and persuasions have now dubbed gas drilling as the savior, and the county is divided into two camps: the believers who await the economic boom that shale gas will bring us, and the rest of us who think gas is great but the method used to extract it from the shale, which uses an average of 3.5 million gallons of chemically treated fresh water, might poison us all.

How did we get here? In the ‘90s I remember a Bethel town board meeting at which a local farmer complained that the Woodstock celebrants were keeping his cows awake, which consequently were not giving milk. Furthermore, these “pot-smoking vagrants” were poisoning the air with a weed that could not be pulled. He wanted those “hippies” driven out. And they were.

The farms were sacred. Protecting them our duty. That same farmer has just leased his land for drilling and, should a permit ever be issued, will have bright lights and large trucks and machinery that pumps water treated with thousands of gallons of carcinogenic chemicals into his land. How is that possible, I ask myself? A farmer destroying his own land? Is he still considering his cows?

And then I remember Jonestown, David Koresh, Sun Myung Moon and all the other false messiahs who got decent people to act in strange ways. What do we do now?