To screen or not to screen

To the editor:

At the meeting of the town board of the Town of Delaware last night, there was a lively discussion of whether or not the showing of the movie “Gasland” should be permitted in Callicoon Creek Park. Board members balked, saying they wanted to remain neutral on the drilling issue, and that by showing the movie, they might invite the impression that they agreed with the film’s anti-drilling message. They also declined to consider a suggestion that, in order to be evenhanded, they show along with “Gasland” a pro-drilling movie entitled “Gas Odyssey.”

One resident who attended observed astutely that the policy of not allowing any films to be shown didn’t seem neutral at all, since by declining to educate the public on the issue, the board actually conveyed an opposite impression: that they didn’t want to disturb the momentum toward hydrofracking.

Of course, in many places across the land, parks are routinely used for political rallies and demonstrations of all kinds. Do those town boards and parks departments turn down requests in order to seem fair-minded, thus denying everyone the right to free expression? No. In order to be evenhanded, they do precisely the opposite, and permit those who are law abiding to make use of the public space.

One board member said if they allowed “Gasland” to be shown, the drilling companies would then come round asking to use the park to promote their views. I think this comment says a great deal, for it shows the undue influence the drilling companies already have. They are not residents of our town yet (and probably never will be), and it is not their park, it is ours; yet they already effectively have a veto in how it will or will not be used.

And the drilling hasn’t even begun.

‘I’ versus ‘we’

To the editor:

Each week we see letters to the editor from two groups: the landowners who want to drill now, not wait until the science is in; and those who ask to wait until we can know that what has happened elsewhere will not happen here.

The first group repeatedly uses the word “I.” I want it now, I deserve to make a profit with my land, I need the money. The second, from the same community, who have paid their full share of taxes, have shopped in the markets, have loved this place with the same fervor, start their sentences with “we.” We are afraid of the health impacts, we are concerned about what the impact on infrastructure, we want our children to have safe drinking water, we want to protect our community from what we have seen the gas industry do elsewhere.

One of the things that makes a 12-step program work is that when addicts or alcoholics hit bottom, and enter a recovery meeting with the disease of self centeredness, believing no one else understands the pain they are in, they are greeted by others who do understand and welcomed with words of “we:” we are glad you are here, we will not let you fall.

With this in mind, please know that we are aware of the troubles facing our farmers and a great group is working together, wanting to get behind these farmers so that they can keep farming rather than start mining. We who are your neighbors, we who are your friends, want to open up the discussion. We need to remember why we moved here, whether it was five years ago or five generations. If I came to any of you who are bent on drilling with a check that matches your signing bonus, requesting to purchase the health of your child, would you sell it? If not, will you be willing to tell your children, when they ask you where all that money came from, that you sold the health of all the children of Sullivan County?

Victoria Lesser

They’re not going anywhere

To the editor:

After our July 21st town meeting I had discussion with two landowners who favor drilling as soon as possible. The first expressed his certainty that those who are asking to wait for the science are proposing a Trojan Horse. It isn’t clean, safe drilling we want; it’s no drilling. And his fear is that so many regulations will be proposed that the gas companies will walk away.

Will the gas companies walk away because of regulation? I don’t think so, but they will wait for the price of gas to go up; and anything else they say is subterfuge. If the price of gas goes up, the way oil has, they will make billions in profit even if the Environmental Protection Agency report calls for protections that cost twice what the gas drillers are hoping to get away with.

The second landowner showed real emotion about the Gulf catastrophe. He would like to see criminal prosecution of both BP executives and federal officers at the Minerals Management Service, who together are responsible for the oil in the Gulf.

BP could have spent $500,000 on extra protection and saved $20 billion. That they didn’t is either stupidity or arrogance. It doesn’t matter which. And it won’t matter which when our water is fouled. So to my landowner friends who are really concerned for the environment, I say wait for the science; the price of gas will sooner or later go up.

A fair hearing?

To the editor:

It’s odd that none of the people writing to complain about the behavior of Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance (NWPOA) members at the recent Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) hearing can recall that some of those folks found themselves getting a little testy after hearing in the first hour or so only two pro-gas speakers and more than 20 opponents—until it was discovered that someone had crossed off the speaker’s sign-up list the names of the NWPOA executive director and others known to be associated with the group. Given that little trick, you might ask who started the trouble.

(Editor’s note: We spoke to Clarke Rupert, communications manager for the DRBC, to try to find out what happened with the sign-up sheets at the recent hearing. According to Rupert, the DRBC set up seven separate sign-up clipboards, each with pages having spaces for 20 names apiece on them, so that seven different lines of people could sign up at once. The method the DRBC used to call on speakers was to take the name in the number-one spot on each of the clipboards, then all the names in the number-two spot, and so on.

On one of the clipboards, the number one name was the counsel for the NWPOA. In the second slot, the name of NWPOA executive director Marian Schweighofer had been written in to the right of another name, which had been crossed off; Schweighofer’s name was crossed off too. Schweighofer’s name was also listed, in what Rupert believes to be different handwriting, as numbers six and 13 on that same page.

Schweighofer’s name was crossed out in the number six as well as the number two slot, but not in the number 13 spot. Rupert says that a total of nine names were crossed out altogether, on all the sheets (out of about 200 names). Not all were pro-gas drilling; indeed, Rupert recognized one as that of the counsel for Nockamixon Township.

The DRBC does not know how the cross-offs occurred, and is considering alternative protocols for future sign-ins.)