Act One: The Prequel, starts in 2008 and ends with the publication of the Supplemental Generic Impact Statement.
The act begins with a wave of boilerplate drilling leases, the formation of landowner coalitions to counter those leases, the pushback by anti-drillers, and the Department of Environmental Conservation and Environmental Protection Agency hearings. Approaching the end of Act One, the anti-drillers control the narrative (gas drilling is bad; no good can come of it) and on the surface, they are in their ascendancy.
Act Two: The Empire State Strikes Back.
After three years of review, New York state issues the strictest set of guidelines in the nation for natural gas drilling. Since anti-drillers want to ban gas development, they will take to the courts. The court cases take time, but the anti-drillers inevitably lose.
Act Three: The Aftermath.
No one knows when the curtain rises on this act, but drilling comes slowly to New York. It starts in Broome and Tioga counties and slowly works its way north as infrastructure fills in. Otsego County is drilled because it has multiple gas plays estimated to contain at least 100 billion cubic feet per square mile. Otsego gas sells at $1 premium to Texas or Colorado gas because it's only 180 miles from the wellhead to a stove in Queens.
As gas flows out and money flows in, the loss of farmland in Otsego County stabilizes. Farmers don't have to work two jobs or sell of roadside parcels to survive. School (and general) populations start to rise as young families are once again able to find good-paying local jobs. School and town taxes stabilize and, hopefully, trend lower. Each well is a business, taxed separately, contributing to the community.
More jobs accrue as local businesses use local energy, giving them a competitive advantage. Plans for the use of Coventry gas for Bainbridge and Sidney businesses and residents are in the pipeline (pun intended).
As welders, truck drivers, gravel pit operators, carpenters and dozens of other businesses and occupations experience an uptick in activity, more jobs are created. Workers and landowners buy goods and services, thus creating more jobs. That's how it works.
There will be no wholesale degradation of the environment. Accidents will happen and there will be inconveniences, but no post-apocalyptic nightmare that the antis are predicting. Twenty years from now, people will wonder what the fuss was about.
In optimistic moments, I see people on both sides of the issue joining together to monitor and consult with industry to ensure safety and convenience, to suggest modifications for a flexible SGEIS, and to advocate for ample staff at the DEC for monitoring and enforcement.
Probably won't happen as long as the hardcore leadership pushes for renewables and sees cheap, plentiful, local natural gas as an obstacle to their goals.
A renewable energy future is an admirable goal, perhaps even attainable in some far-distant time. However, nationally and locally, we need a mix of energy sources and we need it now. We also need a basic understanding of TANSTAAFL _ There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
Currently, a little more than 5 percent of our national energy mix is renewables. Roughly 3½ percent is hydroelectric. Wind and solar (less than 2 percent) have problems. Biggest problem _ sometimes the wind doesn't blow; the sun doesn't shine. When it does blow and shine, it's often in inconvenient places needing huge infrastructure investments. Wind and solar need market-distorting subsidies and mandates just to be marginally competitive. These subsidies usually support existing technologies rather than cutting-edge advances that might one day make renewables competitive.
A renewable such as hydroelectric needs 250 square miles of man-made Lake Mead behind a Hoover Dam. Goodbye, environment. Replacing just one of the two 1,000-megawatt reactors at Indian Point would require lining the Hudson River from New York City to Albany with 45-story windmills one-quarter mile apart. That's 600 windmills. But there's a catch _ the 600 windmills would only generate electricity one-third of the time, when the wind is blowing.
For solar, let's go local. Let's fill the fields across from the Clark Foundation building on state Route 28 with solar panels. Cooperstown would be provided with clean energy, but at what cost to the viewshed? Plus, panels have to be cleaned with water. Easy in Cooperstown; environmentally difficult in Arizona. TANSTAAFL, anyone?
Finally, what can renewables do for global trade? Diesel engines power 94 percent of trade, from oceangoing vessels to trains and trucks. It dominates because of cost, efficiency, reliability and durability. What kind of battery pack would be needed to power a container ship across an ocean? What's in the renewable pipeline to replace the gas turbine that has shrunk our world through transoceanic flight? There's nothing even remotely comparable.
As the Gas Wars unfold, no matter what the regs or how strictly they are enforced, accidents will inevitably occur. Just as inevitably, these accidents will be addressed and remediated, and life will go on. Otsego County could be on the cusp of an economic opportunity that, if managed wisely, will far outlast all of us who are at each other's throats. Misinformation, fear and emotion are no substitutes for reason and reality.
Dick Downey of Otego is a founding member of the Unatego Area Landowners Association.
Guest Column
Gas Wars: A play in three acts
- Guest Column
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
In Otsego County’s local elections last fall, a number of candidates — most of them on the independent Sustainable Otsego line — ran on an anti-fracking, pro-sustainability platform. They recognized that our current way of life — dependent on increasingly scarce, costly and polluting fossil fuels — cannot continue.
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Time to get off the bus and on the computer
Seventy-five years ago, use of a new technology resulted in a dramatic transformation of education in our region and in rural areas throughout the country.
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Cuomo's Machiavellian maneuvers are a danger
New York State has a long history of problems with money -- high income taxes, high property taxes, and a high lifestyle in Albany that seems to attract lots of politicians with high, even presidential, aspirations. For decades our politicians have sucked up enormous wealth from businesses and individuals, and redistributed it in ways that ensure their continued political employment. The Empire runs on money, and recognizing this fact, it should be simple to figure out how the fracking debate is going to play out over the next few months in Albany.
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Home rule laws aren't a radical idea
A lot of discussion and debate has occurred in our area lately over the issue of 'home rule' as it would apply to natural gas drilling. Let me offer some thoughts and my perspective on the issue and on the legislation I have sponsored (S. 5830) to enable local governments to treat natural gas drilling the way zoned communities treat any other commercial, industrial or residential use.
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Sustainable shouldn't be a dirty word
Sustainable Otsego has been in the news a lot lately. We have been vocal critics of hydrofracking for natural gas both locally and statewide, and we put together with the Democrats a winning slate of pro-sustainability, pro-home rule, anti-fracking candidates in the recent elections.
- Saturday, November 5, 2011
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Fracking fears are based on facts
Some recent letters in The Daily Star and other local papers have implied that supporters of candidates for town and county offices who oppose gas drilling are fear-mongering, or that we can rely on the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to protect us.
- Saturday, October 22, 2011
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Tea goes well with 'Occupy'
Otsego County supporters of the Tea Party will remember me. In 2009, we marched in outrage against the bi-partisan $800 billion taxpayer bailout of Wall Street.
- Monday, October 17, 2011
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City charter deserves support
Having served as mayors of the City of Oneonta, we write to urge the city’s voters to approve the proposed new city charter on Nov. 8.
- Saturday, October 1, 2011
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Don't overlook potential of workers with disabilities
American jobs are dominating the national conversation right now, and with good reason. But amid the political debates and pundit analysis, there's one segment of the labor market that's going largely ignored: Workers with disabilities.
- Sunday, September 18, 2011
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Coventry pipeline could benefit region
Last month, anti-drillers campaigned against a pipeline shipping Coventry gas to Bainbridge and Sidney customers. What's wrong with this picture?
- Monday, August 1, 2011
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'Gas Wars' entering its second act
Raise the curtain on the second act of Gas Wars. The SGEIS allows access to 85 percent of the shale gas beneath our state. The hardcore environmental lobby has lost to the science and the multi-state research of the three-year study by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. All that is left is the hoopla surrounding the 60-day comment period. The DEC then presents the final document to the governor for release. Then gas development begins in New York.
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Make affordable birth control a priority
One of the biggest barriers to effective family planning may soon come tumbling down for millions of American women.
- Saturday, July 16, 2011
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SUNY Oneonta expansion will be bad for city
Recent plans by the State University College at Oneonta to expand its reach into the community have threatened to change the character of several neighborhoods here in the city.
- Saturday, July 9, 2011
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Health: Take steps to protect your skin this summer
NetSummary
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The folly of job-training programs
America believes that the solution to every social and economic problem is job training. Outsourcing? Job training. Economically depressed neighborhoods? Job training. Impoverished single mothers? You guessed it.
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'Change' is the byword for city, region, state
Regardless of the outlook at the federal level, and separate from the glimmer of promise for New York State, we're sure to see changes in the "who" and "how" of handling our local challenges in the year ahead.
- Saturday, June 25, 2011
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Changes to city charter will be good for Oneonta
The Oneonta Charter Review Commission appreciated the opportunity to present the first full draft of the proposed Oneonta City Charter to the mayor and Common Council on June 7, as well as the questions from Council Members.
- Saturday, June 11, 2011
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Health column: Take step to prevent and treat urinary tract infections in girls
By Dr. Linda M. Lukose How common are urinary tract infections in girls?
- Saturday, June 4, 2011
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Take steps to combat illegal dog fights
Dog fighting is a felony in all 50 states. However, because of loopholes in the laws in New York state, many dog fighters go free. This has made New York a haven for these vicious criminals. People come from other states and cities to rural areas like ours to take part in the criminal activity of dog fighting. Otsego and Delaware counties are close to the Pennsylvania border and within an hour of Binghamton and Albany, making us a central location.
- Saturday, May 21, 2011
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
