Marcellus Shale

Vote 4 Energy, Vote 4 New York Landowners

On July 15 landowners and industry will be joining together for the largest  pro-natural gas rally in New York state. Landowners have spent four years waiting for Albany to allow the harvesting of our deeded rights. While we have been waiting, we have witnessed a fear mongering campaign that exceeds Y2K and the great Alar scare combined.  Yet, we’ve kept on correcting misinformation and fighting for the property rights we’ve been denied for what now seems like an eternity. We are finally at a precipice with talk of a decision on whether New York will allow permitting and how this will take place set to occur as soon as the end of the summer. It’s time for one last stand to show the legislatures and the DEC just how many lives their decisions will impact.

Fear Mongering at Its Finest

The fear and smear campaign was started in New York–I’ll admit it’s not our finest hour as New Yorkers. Since its inception, this campaign has managed to gain traction, spreading like a pandemic across the country and even internationally, causing panic in those that believe everything they read on the internet. Landowners  have stood on the side lines in astonishment of how fast fear and misinformation has spread, with media outlets choosing readership sales over fact checking and the capability for anyone with a computer to become an “expert.”  While we have been observing, our opportunity to lease our simple deeded rights has been put on hold.

We have seen propaganda instill fear into people that we thought were intelligent. We have seen a movement with privately  funded films supported by Hugo Chavez appointees capture the simple minds of the layperson. First it was “Your water will light on fire!” Then it was “Your water will be polluted,” and a brown jug was introduced to illustrate what will happen. Since then the argument has rolled to every aspect of life, threatening any and all problems one can dream up, including transgender mutations, sterilization and deformities in livestock.  Every new stretch has been dis-proven with facts and science, yet some people still follow.  Why?  Fear is a powerful tool and once one feels it, it’s hard to see reason.

Light at the End of a Four Year Tunnel

There is good news after four years, though. The number of followers of the anti-natural gas movement have dropped dramatically. We can attribute this to common sense over time and many groups and people working together to share facts with the public. For most people, when they catch someone in a lie, they avoid that group or person, and that has helped in the dwindling of these numbers also. Some are more forgiving and give a second chance. But, in the case of harvesting minerals it has been nonstop misinformation.

People can see through this and it’s lead to the much smaller turnouts at anti-natural gas demonstrations. The recent “Splash” event in Binghamton brought out but a fraction of the previous year. Giving away free music didn’t even help! This is because people do not want to be associated with dishonesty, deception, and instigation.

July 15, 2012 | Vote4Energy Rally Broome Tioga Sports Center, 50 Schaffer Road, Richford, NY 13835

For four years we landowners have been researching, studying, applying and struggling.  An education does not come free. We, the landowners, have earned our Masters in Hard Knocks, fighting the fear ridden agendas, lies, deception and manipulation from many sides.  We, at times, felt like giving up and when that thought crossed our minds we knew giving up was for the weak. The blood, sweat and tears spent protecting our lands, paying taxes on our land and the thought of someone taking our deeded rights away, snapped us out of giving up.  That good education we have been given will, we hope, be put to good use soon.

I and many others say enough already! The Vote 4 Energy event coming up on Sunday, July 15 is an afternoon of landowners and industry getting together to prepare for our possible new future of rebuilding our area and saving our youth, farms, and land.  The event will be held at Broome-Tioga Sports Center.  It will start out with a tractor parade.

Entrance to the event is free, but a non perishable food item will be collected at the gate to help troops and local food pantries.  This event will feature live bands, a BBQ, open tract for your ATV or dirt bike, games, and prizes. We “might” even be giving away a new 4 wheeler to some lucky person, plus a ton of other prizes. We will have speakers and an open mike for landowners to share their stories. You can watch it all from a Jumbotron TV, where we’ll also be showing the new Truthland movie. At 9:30 we’ll have a huge firework show to close the event. Now is the time for landowners to unite! Be a part of New York History as gates open at 3p.m.

The landowners are a key component to turning New York state around. Together we hold the keys to open the doors of prosperity and bring new life to our area.  This event will bring the natural gas industry and landowners together to work for a positive future here in the Southern Tier.  Be there, and be part of creating history in Realityville.

 

No Comments

Post A Comment