Our economy is in big trouble and we are partly to blame.  Our extensive use of our autos, electric appliances, air conditioning, heating and the like have made us energy dependent on those countries that don’t like us. The rest of the world is laughing at us because we do not use the massive resources below us.  Instead, we make other countries richer by relying on them to supply us with goods we already have at our fingertips.  There are those who say we’re endangering our environment with hydraulic fracturing.  They choose to ignore the science that makes it a safe choice.  But, if we do not allow responsible development of natural gas on our soil, we are sending all our wealth to other countries including Russia, Venezuela and the Mideast.  Can we afford to keep doing that?  Isn’t it time we got together?

This can all be reversed if we work together to develop our natural gas resources in an environmentally safe manner (with special casing requirements, for example, that are illustrated in the DEC presentation excerpt depicted below).  The New York Department of Environmental Conservation, gas companies and landowners (who are the real environmentalists) and various conservation groups have all had their input into the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) and it’s now time to move on and get it done, without further delay.  If you haven’t written the Governor to say so, do it now!

I don’t know anyone who wants higher taxes, higher fuel costs or less services and we solutions right under our feet. All we have to do is stop our bickering and false accusations and work together. This would be a win-win for all New Yorkers.  There are those who have made false accusations to advance their own special interest agendas but we can not allow them to derail our economy and way of life. If we unite, we can bring jobs and prosperity back to New York in a meaningful way.  So, therefore, let’s all tell our governor, senators, legislators and community leaders it’s time to work together to make New York a wonderful place to live and work again.

There is also a proposed Natural Gas Act before the U.S. Congress that would promote the use of natural gas in government vehicles and 18-wheelers.  We should all support this legislation. It would eliminate a significant amount of importing of oil, keeping billions of dollars at home while  also helping create many new jobs in the natural gas industry and others that depend on it.

We all need to pull together and make this work.  The DEC is now in the process of finishing up the SGEIS that they have been working on for years now. It will set the standard for the rest of the country and is something we should all be proud of.  Lets start to work together by supporting it, instead of continually shooting ourselves in the foot.