Natural gas in upstate New York communities is common and long-standing, yet the state wrings its hands over allowing its citizens to produce it, even when the safety is well-documented and the economic need is apparent to all. New Yorkers need to THINK, please!

Broome County lies next door to me and has used natural gas as a main source of heat for over 100 years, as have cities such as Ithaca, one of the hotbeds of natural gas opposition today. Here's how it happened:

"NYSEG traces its history back to October 28, 1852, when six Ithaca NY businessmen pledged a total of $75,000 and incorporated as the Ithaca Gas Light Company. The fledgling company soon laid mains and built a coal gas plant. In 1853 Ithaca's streets saw their first lamps.

In the thirty years following the founding of Ithaca Gas Light, the use of methane gas grew steadily. Street lighting was extended beyond affluent business districts, while homeowners and businesses obtained lights for evening hours."

Well over 80 percent of the homes in Binghamton heat there homes and cook their food with natural gas! Nearly 100 percent of that natural gas comes from gas wells that have been hydraulically fractured (fracked)! Wells that are in still production and providing our gas were fracked since 1940 with a mixture of 99 percent water and sand and one percent chemicals – an average of but four chemicals per well.

http://ning.it/11cxyMx