Will we never learn? Why do we just trust corporations, yet curse the very government that could protect us against their predatory nature?
I don’t know when this country turned into a bunch of people who hate the government, yet call themselves “patriotic.”
In the good old days, when we were becoming a nation, our policies were mostly formed by the brilliant Enlightenment thinkers. They were saying things like, “The government that governs best, governs least.” That was genius! The reason for it, was that we could create a democracy and get rid of royalty.
The reason for that was because royalty could reign (not “govern”) without any oversight, or regulation. A democracy was needed for the specific task of overseeing and regulating. Not regulating what the individual was doing, but what was being done to the individual.
That meant that we were to be protected from things like eminent domain (except in the most dire cases, like preventing imminent catastrophes), and certainly being protected from “compulsory inclusion” in some gas-hole scheme to steal land.
If you have even cracked open a newspaper in the last days you have seen the devastation that deregulation of corporate behavior has wrought on Wall Street. This will not trickle down to the average American, this will piss down on the average American.
So why on earth would we even consider trusting the gas companies? Don’t trust them as far as you can spit a rat, I say.
According to NEOGAP Information:
YET ANOTHER exemption is being requested RIGHT NOW to the USFWS from Columbia Gas/Nisource affecting these states.
It is a 50 YEAR exemption to the ESA for a 1 mile corridor around any/all existing gas facilities as well as NEW construction in right-a-ways or adjacent areas. Please be aware that if approved any air,water,habitat pollution/destruction that occurs will affect YOUR resources as well. To view a Service Map of the project go to: http://www.nisource.com/commitment_hcp.asp
Currently, the ESA is one of less than a handful of laws that the industry must abide by and thus is indirectly protecting many homeowners rights today! Please start preparing your contacts to submit public feedback. If approved, this permit would set a precedence for similar exemptions!
Links about this article:
View the Federal Register announcement of Nisouce’s Incidental Take Permit application
US Fish and Wildlife Service Scoping Report
