In 1930, my greatgrandparents purchased a beautiful farm in Bradford County, PA, in a little hamlet called French Azilum. In the summer, we spent time there, resting, breathing in the fresh air, enjoying the wild flowers, the bright stars and planets on a clear moonlit night, and swimming in the Susquehanna River. If gas drilling is allowed to continue, Bradford County and all of Pennsylvania will be forever changed, ruined beyond repair.
Showing posts with label economic effects of gas drilling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economic effects of gas drilling. Show all posts
New York State has banned horizontal slickwater hydrofracking. However, there is much work to be done to insure the health of the environment, human health, and the economic health of the state. The infrastructure necessary for the gas industry, namely, pipelines, wastewater treatment, liquid natural gas storage, compressor stations, and transportation of oil and gas via rail, is still very much in question. In the Finger Lakes region, famous for its pristine water, tourism, and wine industry, there are those who want the money from the gas industry and those who are more concerned about the inevitable and irreversible health and environmental effects.
"The furor is over construction plans by Crestwood Midstream Partners to expand natural gas storage and add LPG storage in existing caverns on Seneca Lake's western shore. Gas would be withdrawn during heating season, with the facility connected to an intricate pipeline and options to ship by truck and rail."
Just about every day, groups of protestors block the two entrances to Crestwood. This is causing a strain on local law enforcement, so they say. The costs of the protests, including extra staff and court costs, were not budgeted this year. The many protestors are people from many walks of life, and they are passionate about this crisis. Well over a hundred people have been arrested so far, with some serving jail sentences.
Let the protests continue until Crestwood leaves!
Towanda Borough Police Department has revealed that the Chief of Police, Mitch Osman, will leave the department to accept a job with Chesapeake Energy Corp. [Chief Osman may also have been frustrated (only guessing here) by the lack of extra funding and personnel needed to address the growing police needs of the area mostly due to the gas drilling industry.)A classic example of how the gas industry is siphoning off local people from public service jobs. A few months ago, I attended a meeting about hydrofracking in Rochester, NY, at which Mike Lovegreen was a panel member. Mike is the district manager for the Bradford County Conservation District, headquartered in Towanda, PA. At the meeting Mike told me that several of his employees had left to accept jobs with the gas industry because the salaries were significantly higher. He simply could not compete with that, given his budget. And he said it was hard to find new people to fill these positions vacated by employees who left for better pay.
Boomtowns have this effect on local economies. The Big Boys ride in to town, offer great (at least a little better) salaries to often economically depressed people. The local people are enticed to go to work for them, in an effort to provide a better life for their families. The local businesses take a hit. It becomes a mono-economy, dependent on the gas industry. Gas industry eventually leaves. The area returns to its original condition or worse.
Will Bradford County experience this boom/bust cycle in the future?
Comments from Vera Scroggins:
Believe me, you won't be wanting these "great" jobs for your families--
12 hour days with 14 days on and 14 days off with rates of $10 to $13 an hour
and exposed to dirty conditions with exposure to possible toxins
and dangers--
not something I want my children involved in or our husbands, dads, etc..--
the gas companies think we are so desperate here in Susquehanna County that
we will take any kind of low-level, donkey work--
the better, choicer jobs are for the out-of-staters--
and they're not so great either--
The Gas Companies can't get enough people interested in their offerings--
I wonder why ?? !!
and they have the nerve to say our people don't want to work--
I told them to offer humane jobs and conditions--
that went over their heads!!
Dairy farmers Carol French and Carolyn Knapp tell their stories about their experiences with gas drilling in Bradford County, PA. They speak on the theme of economic impacts of gas drilling on their lives. Listen to them and find out what is really happening in PA.
If you have an hour, watch this video. It is a MUST SEE! You will not believe what these Bradford County dairy farmers are going through! You will be amazed!
Economic Impacts of Heavy Industrial Activities in the Town of Ulysses, New York
A talk by Dr. Jannette Barth, PhD, given in May 2011.
Jannette Barth, PhD (Economist). Other speakers include Carolyn Knapp and Carol French (PA dairy farmers); and members of the Ulysses Town Board. May 21, 2011, Trumansburg Fire Hall. Co-sponsored by Back to Democracy, Concerned Citizens of Ulysses, and Ulysses Gas Drilling Advisory Board.
Watch this outstanding talk by Dr. Barth here: LINK (Total time: 38 minutes)
Introduction of Jannette Barth prior to her talk: LINK
Read an article by Dr. Barth (Economic Impact of Gas Drilling in the Catskills) here.
A water tanker spews dust as it drives along North Street recently. Jackie Vanderpool says some of the customers at her hair styling business are reluctant to venture out in the dust after an appointment.
Photo: The Rocket-Courier, Wyalusing, PA
Road construction and heavy truck traffic on North Street in Terry Township have not been kind to Jackie Vanderpool and her business. Road work has hurt her business immensely she says. Other small business owners have experienced similar problems- lost business.
Vanderpool says that the entrance to her salon used to be level with the road, but now there is a steep incline to traverse in order to get to her walkway. Some of her elderly clients have a lot of trouble now, and they are afraid of falling. She says,
All I want is for it to be fixed somehow. I worry about my customers falling down and hurting themselves.
Customers have started calling the salon to see if road conditions are good or bad. Roads being worked on are sometimes closed off. Vanderpool has asked the construction company if her customers can be allowed to go through to get to her salon. Some of her clients just want their hair cut instead of the usual wash, set, and style. They feel like it is futile to get their hair styled only to go outside and be enveloped in dust.
It's sometimes so thick you can't even see across the street.
While it is nice that the construction workers have offered to come and help customers get back to their cars safely, that solution seems undesirable. Who wants to have a sweaty, road crew member in full battle array take a hold of your arm?
Vanderpool told the reporter, Cain Chamberlin, that it takes her two or three weeks to make the same amount of money that she used to make in only one week.
In Pennsylvania, gas drillers don't pay property taxes on the value of the natural gas as they do in Texas and other states. And thanks to the 2005 Energy Policy Act, passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush, almost all the costs of drilling can be directly deducted from drilling companies' taxes. The Intangible Drilling Costs tax deduction allows companies to directly deduct 70 percent of costs including wages, supplies, site preparation, fuels, chemicals and other equipment needed for drilling. Pennsylvania taxpayers foot the bill when they pay their federal income tax.
PennFuture has published an article about natural gas lobbyists who have spent more than one million dollars lobbying the PA legislature so far this year.
The natural gas lobbyists - who have spent more than $1 million lobbying the Pennsylvania legislature so far this year to avoid a severance tax on Marcellus Shale gas drilling - have a lot in common with the snake oil sales reps of old. They are making spectacular claims about the benefits of gas drilling even as they poor-mouth about economic fragility of their industry. A look at the facts makes it clear that virtually none of the lobbyists' claims are true. Our message to state legislators - Buyer beware.
The gas industry is taking the approach that they are in a delicate position right now, being as they are in their infancy. A comment in the Philadelphia Inquirer reads:
If the natural gas industry is an infant, it was born with a silver spoon in its mouth.
The annual bonuses that the CEOs are getting really belies this argument. Cheasapeake Energy's CEO Aubrey K. McClendon got a compensation package last year of $112.5 million. Range Resources' CEO received $5 million. Atlas America's PA subsidiary paid Richard Weber nearly $2.5 million.
Claim: PA consumers will be hit with higher costs for natural gas. PennFuture says NO. Claim: We (gas companies) already pay too much in taxes. PennFuture says NOT EXACTLY. Claim: We're (gas companies) bringing jobs to PA. PennFuture says NO.
However, the drillers may successfully dodge the severance tax which is required in most gas producing states, and will also make "sweetheart" deals with the state to buy leases in PA state forests and parks. They will buy low now and make a killing later.
PennFuture says,
We weren't born yesterday. All of us should let the legislature and the governor (Rendell) know that this is a very bad deal all around.
(A dead cow lies in a Louisiana pasture, a victim of drinking contaminated water near a well pad)
McLinko Gives His Side on Gas - by Doug McLinko who supports the gas industryand the demise of Bradford County through the ill effects of hydrofracking- 6/25/2009 The Rocket-Courier
Dear Editor:
On June 18, 2009 a letter to the editor entitled “Mind Boggling” by Christopher Bradley was printed in the Rocket-Courier attacking the nascent natural gas industry in Bradford County and the positive effects it will have on our economy during the nationwide recession.
Mr. Bradley and I have a fundamental difference of opinion on government’s role in the local economy; I believe in free markets and private enterprise while the writer takes the side of big government. I generally avoid responding to these letters, but Mr. Bradley was so inaccurate, inarticulate and invidious, that I will make an exception.
Bradley’s assertion that I am “lobbying for the gas companies in order to line my own pockets,” is a serious matter. Absent some hard evidence, it’s also malicious.
Clearing up misinformation is a day-to-day task in this new industry in our county. The gas companies have not confiscated land through eminent domain. Rather, contracts between landowners and gas companies were signed allowing drilling on their private property for a lease payment and future royalties. Even local and state governments have entered into these agreements. [Sadly!]In fact, by a unanimous vote, this current board of commissioners leased county land and a right-of-way for pipeline across a remote part of Mt. Pisgah for just under $2.5 million. [Tragically!]
As your county commissioner, I realize the economic benefit [for the few] and job opportunities [except many of the workers are brought in from elsewhere] that will occur as a result of the drilling activity in Bradford County. I also support constructive regulation of the industry to ensure our environment, infrastructure and water are protected. [except the drilling industry is not regulated by the EPA, nor is it subject to the Safe Drinking Water Act or the Clean Water Act]
Bradley took issue with a statement I made recently in response to Gov. Rendell’s proposal to tax landowners in the Marcellus Shale region and divert the money to Philadelphia. I wrote, “If you believe in agriculture preservation and preserving the family farm, this gas play has done more than any government program could ever do.” Bradley responded to my statement by listing a bucket full of government services, but never addressed the fact that Bradford County’s family farmers are struggling to pay their bills while milk prices hover around prices that were seen in the 1970s.
The Farm Bureau and extension offices provide valuable services, but they cannot provide the financial support necessary to keep the family farm afloat in this economy. I invite Mr. Bradley to attend a local Farm Bureau meeting with me and see for himself how lease payments and royalties can save family farms throughout Bradford County.
It’s obvious that Mr. Bradley has never spent time on a farm. He makes the ludicrous statement that drilling activity on farmland will leave it fallow and shut down agriculture in the county.
While a small fraction of land in the drill unit will be utilized during the drilling process, the vast majority of land in the parcel is left untouched and agriculture production is not affected. [McLinko]
[Gas drilling contaminates the air, soil, and often water. It requires the cutting down of many trees to put in access roads. It necessitates the disruption of farmland to make room for well pads, compressor stations, waste water treatment plants, pits for water and fracking fluid, and water pumping stations. Farm animals die from drinking contaminated water in pastures. Land transformed for industrial use by hydrofracking cannot be reverted back to arable land.]
Mr. Bradley states drilling companies will use “heavy equipment that is not easy on the land.” Perhaps he does not realize heavy equipment has been used on the family farm for the past century. Since the advent of heavy equipment, farmland has remained fertile and in fact, crop yields have increased.
I have spent a lot of time researching the natural gas industry and am well aware of both the benefits and drawbacks the activity will have in our county. After traveling to Wise County, Texas with a delegation from Bradford County, I returned back to Wise County on my own dime to further explore the industry’s impact on the region. [McLinko]
[According to a report from a Wise County resident, Mr. McLinko did not meet with people in Wise County who have suffered serious ill effects from gas drilling, even though they had graciously arranged for such a meeting while the Bradford County group was in the area last fall. Why did Mr. McLinko choose not to find out the drawbacks of gas drilling? Or if he did, why did he not report them?]
Locally, I have brought representatives from the industry to answer questions posed in open forums by local officials and concerned citizens. The most important action that I can take as a county commissioner is to open up a dialogue between county residents and the industry. Education is key to ensuring the county benefits from this opportunity. We must maximize all opportunities economically as a county while ensuring the protection of our environment and respecting our rural heritage. I encourage Mr. Bradley to join me in this effort.
Doug McLinko
Bradford County Commissioner
Dear Readers, Does anyone expect an industry representative to mention negative effects of gas drilling? An open forum presenting one side of an issue is hardly adequate. If Commissioner McLinko were interested in dialogue, he would involve more than just industry people here or in TX, all of whom stand to make a lot of money and cannot be objective. The economic advantages of gas drilling will be great for a few "lucky" landowners and a lot of industry people, but the real costs of increased need for fire protection, emergency medical staff, drug counselors, road repair, insurance cost increases, work force drain (resulting in local businesses suffering), legal fees for the inevitable litigation, medical costs from the illnesses that will occur from air, soil, and water pollution, loss of livestock and farmland for growing crops, loss of recreational areas which will no longer be safe or desirable, loss of hunting and fishing areas, all these things will take an enormous toll on Bradford County residents. Gas drilling will cost a lot of money.
Doug McKlinko, Bradford County Commissioner Does he speak for the local residents?
