Thank you, Margaret and Autumn. I'm not in agreement with all the points you've made. I think however that you've raise a critical issue in that much of the debate over Marcellus shale drilling is sounding more and more like simple NIMBYism. I see nothing progressive or enlightened about the vehement opposition to any and all frack-based natural gas drilling in this region. As I've said before we are confronted with an industry that would dig up its mothers' graves if there was a chance of finding natural gas beneith them, but I also think that some of the outrageous exaggerations and distortions by Shaleshock and its ilk would even impress the great SpinMeister Karl Rove. The current controversy is just another of a long string of examples in Ithaca of what true progressives and true environmentalists refer to as "leisure class environmentalism." It's probably not a term you'll hear on NPR or read in the New York Times, but by definition it is the constant action of more affluent cities and regions to push off the significant adverse environmental impacts of their middle class American lifestyle onto poorer regions and communities of the world. Some three-quarters of homes in the city and the town of Ithaca are heated with natural gas, as are all of our centers of employment, our stores, bars, restaurants and I suspect even the State Theatre. Overall in Tompkins County almost 6 in ten homes are heated with natural gas or propane from afar. Indeed the entire economy of Upstate New York is dependent of natural gas and propane produced and imported from thousands of miles away. I've seen too much of the damage wreaked by energy companies first hand in poor communities of Appalachia and Louisiana in their quest to meet Ithaca's demands for coal, natural gas and gasoline. I personally refuse to be a party to an effort by Ithaca-style progressives to once again push off on other, poorer, regions of America and the world the severe environmental costs of maintaining our little paradise here in the Finger Lakes. And, speaking of dairy farms, there are over 300 Marcellus Shale wells either drilled, being drilled, or have been permitted across the border in Bradford County, PA. Many of them are on dairy farms. In many cases you can not even see the finished wells, because the drilling sites have been restored and crops have been planted. Millions of gallons of fracking fluids are flowing right now. Probably some 5-6 billion gallons or so of water have been pulled from the Susquehanna River or its tributaries by now. Take a drive down and check out the environmental havoc wreaked by the drilling companies, if you can find it. George Frantz
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