Fracking Heros
The following is a guest commentary by Stuart Anderson.
FRACKING HEROS
We have all been through a tough learning curve over the past months, and we have conducted successful campaigns to raise awareness and educate the people of Otego about the potential impacts of gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing in our town.
Far and away the single most influential person in this effort has been Dick Downey. Dick was among the very first to raise the alarm about the untrustworthiness of drillers. He made it clear that we cannot trust drillers to treat us with dignity and fairness.
Dick taught us that a driller will do only what is best for his business: he will pay you as little as possible for your mineral rights and get you to sign a lease that completely favors the driller over everyone and everything else.
Dick pointed out that drillers will do anything to tilt the game in their favor. They will take advantage of the poverty of many landowners. They will take advantage of our lack of familiarity with their industry. They will rush us into decisions that we don’t fully understand.
In short, Dick has made it clear to his ULA members and all of us that drillers are not to be trusted. Thank you, Dick, for bringing the drillers’ conniving ways to our attention.
Dick has also been instrumental in demonstrating the power that we common citizens can gain by banding together. Without Dick’s unifying force, many Otego citizens would likely have signed the drillers’ standard leases. Thousands more acres in Otego would now be under lease, and the landmen would continue to pick us off, one by one. Dick has proven the value of group action.
He has also shown us the methods of grass roots activism, recruiting new supporters, bringing in persuasive speakers, organizing public meetings, and attending the meetings of various local governmental bodies.
All the while, he has kept his troops agitated with an unending flow of breaking news, tidbits from other towns and other states, conjectures on strategies, and vigorous cheerleading. He has taught us all just how persuasive half of a story can be; he has taught us all to question the motives of speakers and self-proclaimed experts. He has forced us to realize that the siren call of easy money can make an otherwise sane and rational man believe and profess almost anything. Dick has taught us to be skeptical.
Of course Dick has not performed these feats alone—he’s had dedicated helpers who have also enlightened the citizens of Otego. We’ve learned that loud, aggressive barking will get everyone to sit back in their seats and shut up, even if the message is complete nonsense.
We’ve learned that the threat of lawsuits, even with no basis in fact or law, even when based on half-truths, even when refuted and repeated and refuted and repeated ad nauseum—the threat of lawsuits will always get our public officials to pause and consider, to delay and demure, to cower and reverse course.
We’ve also learned some important lessons from our Town Board. On the topic of gas drilling, they have one refrain: don’t blame me. They have tiptoed along the line between pro- and anti-gas drilling with astounding skill, first being dragged into conducting a survey, then being dragged into starting a moratorium, now being dragged into actually enacting a moratorium….at every step, they can tell the pro-drillers, “Hey, we did our best to fight for you, but we had to do it…”, and they can tell the anti-drillers, “Hey, we got you what you wanted as fast as we could under the circumstances.”
We’ve seen procedural delays at every step, as if we have all the time in the world….of course the best outcome, for the “don’t blame me” quintet would be an edict from Albany that makes the moratorium moot, and if they can dawdle long enough, they may just get it. We’ve all learned that some folks can confuse waiting with governance.
Let me sum up the lessons we’ve learned about participatory democracy in our fracking debate:
- You’ve got to participate (otherwise, just shut up and take what you get)
- You’ve got to be very persistent
- You’ve got to rally supporters and actively recruit
- You’ve got to stick your neck out and make yourself heard, even at the risk of alienating friends and neighbors—put a sign on your lawn; sign a petition; come to the Board meetings
- You’ve got to make sacrifices—shorten or cut out that vacation; give up your favorite TV show and put in the hours on the phone and the internet every day, networking with like-minded activists and educating yourself
- You’ve got to be willing to put everything on the line, because the community that we’ve built and the lives that we’ve planned for our future here will all be taken away from us if we fail.
I’m too old, too invested, and too attached to Otego to just take the money and start over someplace else. I want my grandchildren to spend their summers with me here in our little corner of paradise, and not wonder if I’m risking their health with the water we drink, the produce from our gardens, and the air we all breath.
Thank you, Dick Downey, for making me question what is really important in my life. I hope I can return the favor someday.
3 responses so far
I thought I’d take this time and share an experience I had last night. We were invited, (a sort of last-minute gathering), to a neighbor’s house for dinner. An outdoor affair with bbq and all the fixin’s. We did not know many of the people there, and when we pulled into the driveway the pro-gas signs and stickers adorned many of the vehicles. It was then that I put on my imaginary helmet.
It didn’t take but an hour for the “discussion” of drilling to start, and many of the people there were unaware of my opinion about the subject. Many of the comments were downright hurtful, which didn’t take me long to discard thanks to my trusty helmet, but a few points were made that stayed with me and kept me up last night.
The gentleman I was speaking with felt pretty strongly that his constitutional rights were being violated by this potential moratorium. I see these faces at the town meetings every month: Older, concerned farmers who want what is best for them and their families. This gentleman is convinced that the people who are strongly against the drilling see him as selfish. He sees us as out-of-touch with the reality of the hardships of owning and maintaining his land. I don’t own a ton of land and do not come from a long line of farmers. I suppose I cannot relate to the issues many of my neighbors struggle with. But, I make a modest living and have my own financial struggles just like everyone else around here.
Another issue that kept me stirring last night was how people on both sides of the fence accuse the other of “not getting the whole truth” or stating out-of-date facts to back up our positions. Apparently no one is getting the truth.
I’m not sure what the point is in posting these thoughts, other than is really does all come down to the fact that we are all neighbors who have to find a way to get through this issue together, and the divided, angry comments made last night really did concern me.
Stay Strong.
Amen.
What impresses me about these discussions is that people you take your view (and mine) generally tend to try to at least have courteous discussions and respect the other’s rights to their opinons (although not to make up their own facts.)
On the other hand, most (although not all) of the pro-drilling proponents I have heard tend to want to dominate the discussion, make nasty accusations, call names, and generally bully. As far as their “constitutional rights,” I don’t think any one of them could name the part of the constitution they think allegedly gives them those “rights,” nor do they have any respect for their neighbor’s property rights when it comes to “mandatory inclusion.”
Bluffing, making up facts, and bullying are the tactics of the big oil and gas companies (and the pro-gassers know that – which can be proven by their need to “protect” themselves against them with flimsy contracts that the landowners associations offer them.) It seems like they are the only language most pro-gassers understand, because those are the ones they end up using, themselves. Not all, but most of the ones who speak publicly.
It seems like toxic industries promote toxic personalities.
My husband and I just moved into 207 Main St. and before we moved, I asked the realtor if there is natural gas and he said no, but it’s coming. I was actually looking forward to it because I was born and raised in an urban area of New Jersey right across the Hudson River from New York City. I grew up with natural gas and the house I grew up in had gas lights at one time, many years ago. I never really got used to using an electric stove and propane gas was so expensive, so I really looked forward to natural gas. I couldn’t understand why people were against it. Little did I realize that the way they drilled years ago for gas was different than what they do now.
I found out when a neighbor came to my door the other day, asking if I’d sign a petition to stop the drilling. She explained what the drilling would entail, and I ended up signing the petition. Plus, since then, I did some research on my own and found out all the drilling they’d need to do and the toxic chemicals that would be emitted into the soil and ground water. I am a 9 year cancer survivor and am now very much against drilling for natural gas. I moved out of the city to have cleaner water, air and a more natural “organic” chemical free environment. I want to plant a garden, but am fearful of all the chemicals if they start drilling.
It’s amazing how doing research and learning the facts, can change a person’s perspective.