OtegoNY.com

On July 25, 2009, on the day that my Letter to the Editor in the Oneonta Daily Star was published, I got a call from a guy asking if I was Brian. When I said yes, he said, “How many acres do you own?”

I asked why he was asking, and he said, “I just want to know.”

I asked who was calling, and he said, “I just want to know how many acres you own.”

I asked him if he knew who he was calling, and he said, “Yes.”

I then asked if he would give me the courtesy of letting me know who was doing the calling.

In a flustered voice he said, “Just tell me how many acres you own.”

I told him I’d gladly have a conversation if I knew who I was talking to, and he hung up.

This is the not the typical kind of person we are dealing with. In the past, Otego has fought against putting a maximum-security juvenile prison in, and both sides were cordial and intelligent. It was a good way to get to know and appreciate your neighbors.

But the landmen and the gas lobbyists have done their best to dupe and “het up” some people. They are interests from out-of-state who think we are a bunch of hicks, and treat us like such. Unfortunately some have not seen through them.  It is sad. Some of the same people who we are trying to protect from being bilked and abused are the ones who don’t understand how have an open and honest debate in order to understand the issue.

My neighbors anti-gas signs have been trashed from her yard. Other signs have been destroyed. Another neighbor has even been threatened on the phone. This is no way for neighbors to behave, and I am glad that most of the people on both sides are open to honest communication. They aren’t embarrassed to identify themselves, either.

“Argue hard, but argue fair”, seems to be a good way to go. It’s an American tradition to honor free speech. You can’t really respect or honor your own opinion, though, if you won’t identify yourself. You also aren’t respecting freedom of speech if you call to harass people.

As far as “how many acres” I have, that is a bogus and shameful argument.  The caller assumed I made my decision based on money. That is not the case. It is based on the safety and heritage of the area.

Believe me, if the day ever  comes when horizontal hydraulic fracking is safe, I’d sign up for it even if I had one square foot. I’m not against the money at all. But you have to use your head.

It’s not the “nuisance factor” either. I don’t think we should be against any and all inconvenience. We have to accept some sacrifices. But we are not talking about inconveniences here – we’re talking about a notoriously irresponsible industry, who will do anything to mislead people into believing something that is too good to be true.

As a note to any neighbors who have signed:

Look, I am totally not against anyone making money. I’d love it for all of us to get as rich as the guys who are trying to rip us off. But that’s the problem, they don’t tell the truth, and you know they came to lowball you. They lowball people so badly  that “down” looks like “up” to them.

What the Landowners Coalitions are promising is pure pie-in-the sky, but  it seems preferable compared to what the gas companies try to weasel out of us.

What they are offering is a false choice. Compared to cancer, tuberculosis seems preferable, too, but I don’t want either of them. Do you?

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

“Trust us – we’re the experts.”

Letter to Editor Daily Star July 2009:

It was refreshing to see Dick Downey finally coming clean in his latest letter to the editor. Apparently he thinks it’s not your right to ask questions – just trust him and the Natural Gas Industry. He’d like you to believe that you should accept any risk that would potentially make him some money.

Downey insists that the risks are minimal. This is an actual quote from Downey’s letter, “Ninety percent of the time the problem is corrected once the source is identified.”

WTF? Oh, I see, as long as that ten percent of screw-ups isn’t on his land, I guess he thinks that’s OK. And what about the sources that aren’t identified? Is someone who doesn’t mind sacrificing public safety for his own agenda someone you ought to put your trust in?

He’d have you believe that the dangers are  “… a circumstance that has little chance of happening…”

The only thing that has little chance of happening is landowners getting “free money” (as the industry’s representatives like to promise) or flunkeys for the gas companies telling you the truth. A more likely outcome will be the destruction of roads, aquifers, public services and some people’s health, simply in order to have a few people (mostly from out of state) make a killing off our gullibility. It’s happened elsewhere. But hey, trust them.

It’s not true that those who question the gas industry expect no risks at all. We just expect reasonable accountability and safeguards. Any sane person would. But lobbyists have gotten Big Gas exempt from the Clean Water Act, and they know that the state Department of Environmental Conservation is way out of its league when engaging this industry.

When someone tells you, “Just trust us – don’t ask questions,”  does that make you feel that your interests are being looked out for? Really?

– Brian Foley

“A lie with a purpose is one of the worst kind, and the most profitable.”
-Finley Peter Dunne

It’s worth mentioning that once again, an apologist for the gas industry is trying to misdirect you from the truth. When Downey says:

Last year, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection reported less than a dozen cases of aquifer contamination…

He is not telling you that most of the wells he is talking about are vertical wells, not the horizontal fracturing that is at issue. This is most disingenuous, and is a rhetorical tactic people use when trying to hide the truth.

“It’s OK – we’ll all be dead before the world recognizes what a bunch of lying sacks we were.”

There are no real, meaningful statistics about horizontal fracturing in New York State because it’s almost never been done. And statistics for other areas have been obfuscated by the industry, because they have no intention of letting the public know the truth. It’s not a conspiracy. They don’t need one. It’s just business as usual, like when the tobacco companies claimed that smoking is good for your health. Different product, same bullshit.

It’s like when other industry flunky’s tell you that this procedure has been done in New York State for decades. Of course it hasn’t. See “They Don’t Even Lie Well.”

Doubt is Their Product

This video is entirely relevant to how industry boosters and even scientists will sell their souls in order to sell you something they know is bad.