I am a landowner in Broome County and member of the Gas Coalition. We are part of the Joint Coalition, an enormous group of coalitions that spans the counties of Broome, Tioga, Delaware, Madison, Chenango, Otsego, and Cortland counties, and are conservatively estimated to represent 20,000-30,000 constituents.
Residents of the Southern Tier of New York are facing the greatest opportunity in the history of our area. Various reports indicate our lands are sitting atop the “sweet spot” or “core area” of the Marcellus Shale natural gas play. This natural gas beneath our land has the incredible potential to jump start our sagging local economy if our New York State officials will only move the process forward.
Unfortunately, the anti-drilling crowd seeks to prevent us landowners from recovering the wealth beneath our lands in the guise of sustaining the environment. Through misinformation and fear mongering they are giving the impression gas drilling will create all kinds of horrific events in an effort to turn public officials against developing this valuable resource. They use fabricated “facts” rather than science to instill fear in the uninformed population.
They suggest they are the only protectors of the environment and the “greedy landowners” are only interested in the money, with total disregard for the environment. Nothing could be further from the truth. We harvest fruits and vegetables from our orchards and gardens, and our farming neighbors raise crops and produce milk from our lands.
We landowners are immensely concerned with our environment – we live here and plan on continuing to live here and pass our lands on to our following generations. Look at any of the lease clauses developed by the area coalition steering committees. Most of the clauses are designed specifically to protect our lands and the environment.
As a landowner in the Southern Tier I urge you to do everything in your power to move the gas drilling industry forward as soon as possible and allow us all, landowners and city-dwellers alike, to reap the benefits of the treasure beneath our land.
We have a right to responsibly use our land in any lawful way, including harvesting the natural gas beneath it.
Sincerely,
July , 2009
Mr. Peter Grannis New York State Department of Environmental Conservation 625 Broadway Albany, N.Y. 12224
Dear Mr. Grannis:
As a member of the Coalition, we are asking for your support for Marcellus natural gas drilling in the state of New York and to apply all pressures that are available to your office to get the supplemental GEIS statement immediately completed so that the people of this state can start to move forward.
While here in Binghamton for a town hall meeting at Broome Community College in February, Governor Paterson stated that New York State had the most stringent rules for drilling in the nation, which is verified by the nonexistence of major drilling problems.
With a hundred years of drilling and fracing experience, fracing has an established history even here. The water usage concern has been answered both by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission and the Delaware River Basin Commission as not an issue. Some other issues, like treating frac fluids cannot be resolved until companies know that Marcellus drilling is going to take place in New York. They cannot build new treatment facilities until there is a demand created for them.
The continued delay of the supplemental GEIS is causing additional hardships on the population of New York . Landowners have a right to develop their mineral rights at the best possible rates and royalties. We are strongly urging the DEC to stay with the state date of release of the GEIS in early September.
We are asking you to make this happen.
Sincerely,
Name address member of the Coalition
July 10, 2009
NYS Assemblyman Robert K. Sweeney Chair, NYS Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee LOB 625 Albany, NY 12248
Dear Assemblyman Sweeney:
It is no secret that New York State is experiencing a financial meltdown from the collapse of Wall Street, the corresponding national economic crisis, job and industry losses, and high taxes. How do we recover and get back on our feet? While there are certainly many proposed solutions such as cutting programs, and increasing taxes and fees, the state holds within its very own hands a hidden treasure waiting to be uncovered—Marcellus natural gas. I am a member of the Gas Coalition. We are part of the Joint Coalition, an enormous group of coalitions that spans the counties of Broome, Tioga, Delaware, Madison, Chenango, Otsego, and Cortland counties, and are conservatively estimated to represent 20,000-30,000 constituents. We are encouraging you to act now to encourage the development of this clean fuel industry, so that New York State can take part in the benefits that Pennsylvania is already enjoying. In a November 2008 study done by the PA Economy League, it was noted that:
The financial impact from the oil/gas industry is $7.1 billion dollars annually and growing
There was $4.5B in direct economic impact from drilling, extraction and support/related activities
Employee compensation totaled over $1 billion dollars
Over 26,500 people are employed in the oil/gas industry
For every industry job, an additional 1.52 jobs were created
Higher average pay: $63,000 annually for o/g jobs vs. $43,000 for private sector jobs
Compensation generates an additional $1.88 in spending for every $1 paid to employees
So what is our New York Government waiting for? You hold the key to unlock this treasure-- Marcellus gas is New York State’s Economic Stimulus Package.
