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The In Box blog is a general news and discussion site for the News Department of North Country Public Radio. In Box contact information 
Latest NCPR News
The In Box blog is a general news and discussion site for the News Department of North Country Public Radio. In Box contact information
Latest NCPR News
What’s the hurry to get the gas out of the ground? It’s been there for eons. Let’s wait until we really need it and have better methods of drilling safely.
There is currently a glut of natural gas in the US and we are a net exporter. The MS gas from NY will be sent to the coasts where it will be shipped to the highest bidder on the world market. It is a sham to say increased gas or oil production will increase US energy independence. What it will increase is profits for multi-national energy companies – who look at the US the same way they do Saudi Arabia, Iraq, etc. as simply a place to extract a commodity at the cheapest price to sell on the open market at the highest price. US energy independence has nothing to do with their interests – unless we are willing to be the high bidder for the oil and gas pumped from US ground.
I should have added the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would bisect the US is designed to transport the Canadian oil to US refineries primarily for world export, not US consumption. Besides the chance for environmentally damaging spills in the US this dirty oil will dramatically increase CO2 and air pollution.
http://www.truth-out.org/us-awash-oil-and-lies-report-charges/1315072790
The pipeline is Canada’s way of avoiding building a year-round port. It’s an endrun on their law requiring doublehulled tankers. Canada’s tar sand extractions of oil are even more polluting than fracking. They lack an all season facility to export the oil, but should build one. That would be less risky. The way to make the pipeline unnecessary is to do like Canada and require the tankers to ALL be doublewalled. Pipeline irrelevant.
It is true until we reconfigure our truck fleets at a minimum to start running on natural gas we will be net exporters.
But pipeline construction and energy exploration are good things, they are productive things for our economy. Why is it bad to have an industry in the US that produces something real, that people around the globe want? Pipeline workers and oil rig drillers make far more than working in low paid service job.
I do think this needs to be done correctly and maybe it can’t be done correctly without large scale pollution in NYS, but it sure deserves a hard look, I think it would be immoral frankly to thumb our noses at these very good jobs given this economy and the situation that working class people are stuck in today.
The other thing is who care about energy independence? The whole concept is bogus, we live in a world economy, energy is traded in an international market that can’t be changed.
I have said before and I repeat; there is simply too much money involved here. Fracking will take place in NY simply because NY govt. will not sit on the sidelines while neighboring states rake it in. Has anyone been listening to Cuomo complain about what this state is losing to other states on casino gambling? The same argument applies to fracking.
More info the MS gas issue in NY:
http://newyork.sierraclub.org/SA/Vol38_Summer/GreatGasSwindle.htm