It Is My Shale Gas and I Want It Now

The shale gas that lies beneath the surface of Upstate New York belongs to real people who need it now. It’s time they stood up for themselves!

I recently read a comment on an online anti-drilling site that made me laugh out loud.  I have made and read many comments on many articles, but surely this one deserved first place in three specific categories; Most Ignorant, Most Thoughtless and Most Typical.

 

The writer was complaining about a pipeline that will deliver natural gas to other peoples’ homes. Here is the substance of the comment:

It makes you wonder if the term “tree hugger” is being abused by ignorant tree huggers.    This is not what I am writing about, but it reminded me of funny anecdotes they print in Readers Digest, so I thought I would share it.

My post today is about the hypocrisy of anti-drilling advocates and one of their main arguing points. Those of us who want drilling in New York have heard it hundreds of times. It has been spoken out loud at many public hearings and town meetings. It is a statement I am sure tee’s off many many people; an argument that makes as much sense as throwing a cinderblock to a drowning person.

We’ve heard it spoken by many people from all levels of intelligence, from Kim Michaels of Coventry, New York (pictured above parading in front of gas supporters at Binghamton SGEIS hearing) to Josh Fox (address to be determined). We’ve heard it from Cornell professors Ingraffea and Howarth, from Sandra Steingraber and even from the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo! We’ve even heard it right here, from the readers of NaturalGasNOW. It has been printed in local newspapers across the state and the nation. Have you guessed it yet?  Well, here it is one more time:

It really trips my trigger when I hear this hollow self-serving point brought up as an argument.  Could you imagine if that attitude was applied to all commercial products or services? Would you go to a dentist who commented “Why take an x-ray; that tooth isn’t going anywhere?”  What would you think about a cruise liner captain who said “No need to visit that island; its been there a long time and it will be there when we want to go again.” Or, an ebola vaccine producer who said “What’s the hurry; the vaccine doesn’t deteriorate and there’ll always be victims to treat?”

Why does this statement trip my trigger?  Because it is the most selfish anti-gas argument there is, that’s why!  The words contribute nothing when used in argument. They also speak volumes regarding the common sense or lack thereof by the anti-gasser. The truth is this; I am not going to be here for a million years, the gas is here, it is mine and I want it now!!!  I pay my property taxes and thanks to innovated technology the gas beneath my feet can be accessed by today’s drillers in as little as 90 days.

What does that mean to people like me who owns the mineral rights?  Well, that depends on a few important variables such as the amount of land I own. How much gas is under it? How much will the gas production be taxed? And, how good was the contract I signed with the gas company? Regardless of the answers, though, it’s my shale gas, not some anti’s.

But even with all this, there is still another very serious reason why many New York State landowners, as well as landowners across the country, want to get at their gas now. Our overall economic climate (our business friendliness) in New York is the worst in the country, dead last, 50th out of 50, because of over regulation, high taxes, poor job growth and one dithering idiot who thinks he is above the law.

Our governor (Cuomo) refuses to meet with the people of Upstate New York and governs from on-high in a self inflicted mindset of total control. He envisions himself as the guardian of some civic utopia and has barricaded himself from reality behind a staff of thugs and by virtue of his own privileged life (just like the driver of the car in the photo below). He seemingly believes Upstate New York will survive on tourism alone but Catskill history tells us that’s no real future.

More importantly, why should I have to live out my life knowing the receipts I could have collected from the sale of the gas beneath my land could have afforded me, depending on the variables, an early retirement to Florida or a cabin on Cayuga Lake (or even Lycoming County)?

Why should I have to ponder the many things I might have been able to afford; things like college for myself, my kids, or my grandchildren had I just had access to the gas in my deeded rights?

Why should some jackass (like the one probably driving the car in the photo below) who lives in a home and on wealth left to them by their parents or grandparents, who made their fortunes investing in Standard Oil be able to tell me to just wait? I’m tired of these self-made hippycrites who state stupid things such as; “Well, what would you have done had the gas not been there you? You would have lost your land anyway.”

The simple fact is the gas is there!  Landowners possess the accessible gas beneath them and drilling for natural gas can be done safely – now. So, why are we letting them take it away from us?

It is time poll-driven politicians and mis-informed anti-gas activists quit playing with the lives of people through political oppression forced upon us – the landowners of this state. New York is the only major oil and gas state in this great country, that is not allowing its citizens to experience the opportunities the citizens of 33 other gas drilling states in this country now enjoy!  It is time for the pro gas landowners, job seekers, and unemployed pipefitters, to stand as one.  We need to take a page out of the anti-gas playbook and practice what they preach – civil disobedience. 

We need to protect our own interests. We need to confront the lies of the anti-gas activists as soon as they are spoken in public and in writing!  I’m talking about lies such as those about the non-existent “Halliburton Loophole,” lies about fracking polluting ground water aquifers. The Lipski lie,  the Wolf Eagle and Dish, TX lies; every one of them needs to be rebutted repeatedly. We know the lies they tell and we are losing the right to drill because we are not confronting the liars in their own meetings open to the public. It’s time we did so. We need to be the protestors for a change.

Natural Gas Now