Media ignoring positives of natural gas drilling
If anyone (such as Mr. Dungan of Walton) were to read my entire response in The Daily Star interview relative to the Siena fracking poll, it would be obvious that I was criticizing the absence of positive reporting of natural gas development in the media as a principal cause of rampant anti-drilling sentiment.
I stand by my "10 wells were drilled without incident today" comment after having spent a day in Susquehanna County inspecting drill pads in all stages of activity. Mr. Dungan's simplistic mathematical treatment of raw numbers of "violations" ignores the nature of the "violation," the date and number of "violations" associated with a single well, the number of preventative "violations" immediately mitigated without enforcement or fine, the absence of "violations" resulting in public health impact, etc.
In fact, only a handful of those "violations" could have possibly resulted in widespread or even localized human or animal health impact. The fact is that they did not. The regulatory system worked and is being continuously improved. In fact, it would not surprise me to see "violation" reports (more "numbers" for the likes of Mr. Dungan and the press) increase in New York state due to the nature and detail of the SGEIS. This is a good thing.
Instead of the Dimock portrayed by the anti-drillers as hell on Earth, I saw well-designed, highly safety-oriented facilities and operations staffed by competent, friendly, well-employed individuals. The beautiful countryside is minimally disturbed, truck traffic is sporadic and controlled on well-maintained roads and routes change every few weeks. Local business is brisk, no residential "for sale" signs were evident and renovation and improvements were prevalent. Sorry, no "No Drill" signs, only "Dimock Proud" signs.
I will await regular reporting under the heading "Natural gas development benefits local community."
Dave Parker
Worcester
Parker is a founding member of the Worcester Area Drilling Coalition.
Obama playing the race card
Greetings from Texas, where wagon-loads of Obama's buffalo chips were collected, the biggest being his bogus job stimulation lie that wasted trillions of taxpayer dollars on "shovel-ready" jobs that Obama knew didn't exist.
He stole the money to woo his new deity "The Green Goddess" and reward his union buddies. It's rumored that Obama is switching from golf to liars' poker, where he excels, especially when he plays the race card, a game he learned from Jeremiah Wright, America's No. 1 racist. Some of the cards are:
Mythical Racism _ when Obama on national TV falsely accused Sgt. James Crowley and the Cambridge, Mass., police department of bias (remember the beer summit?) and when he injected himself, again on national TV, into the Martin/Zimmerman case citing fictitious sons.
Osmosis Racism _ when white Republicans are called racists for working to make Obama a one-termer, yet when Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (remember Wappinger Falls and Crown Heights) campaigned to make President Bush a one-termer that was OK.
Partiality Racism _ when club-wielding uniformed militant Black Panthers intimidated voters at a Philadelphia voting site, Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder deep-sixed the case as frivolous. If President Bush ignored hooded Klansmen, he would have been toasted.
Reverse Racism _ not bending over backward to get to the bottom of the murder of Border Agent Brian Terry. Holder, with Obama's help, stonewalled the congressional investigation and betrayed the Allen family. One could argue that since both Holder and Obama are black and Brian Terry is white that racism was involved. You can bet that, had President Bush covered up for AG Roberto Gonzales and agent Terry was black, both would have been barbecued.
William Eckardt
Cedar Park, Texas
Eckardt is a former resident of Oneonta.
