Aug 13, 2010 09:08:45 PM, tom@shepstone.net wrote:

Many of you are keenly aware of the actions of Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy in challenging the actions of Cornell Cooperative Extension and the Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development.

According to a July 25, 2010 article in the Times Herald Record, Bruce Ferguson and Jill Wiener of that organization "accused the organizations of using taxpayer money to promote a 'pro-drilling agenda'."
They cited the receipt of public monies ($90,000 this year for the Partnership) to suggest these organizations shouldn't be involved in the gas issue - a patently obvious attempt to intimidate and silence anyone and everyone who might raise a hand in favor of responsible drilling.

What Ferguson and Wiener didn't discuss, of course, was their own partnership with the Catskill Mountainkeeper, which is wholly a part of the Open Space Institute (OSI), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that took a $25 million loan from the Empire State Development Corporation in 2007, which comes due this year. This partnership is acknowledged on the Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy website at http://www.catskillcitizens.org/ where it is noted "Catskill Citizens has partnered with three other organizations on a joint media campaign centered around the message 'Drilling Isn’t Safe'."

That the Catskill Mountainkeeper is simply a part of the Open Space Institute is clear from the latter's 2008 tax return, which is attached.
The return clearly indicates, on page 38, that Ramsay Adams, the self-designated Mountainkeeper is an employee of OSI. It also states on page 44 the Catskill Mountainkeeper initiative is an OSI's "Citizen Action Group." Therefore, when the Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy (Bruce Ferguson, et al) says it partners with the Mountainkeeper, it is acknowledging a partnership with OSI, which took, not $90,000, but an astounding $25 million from the public - roughly 278 times what the Partnership got.

Even worse, this was public money intended for economic development and which should have gone to organizations like the Partnership. Instead, it went to an overtly anti-development group that prides itself in doing everything it can to frustrate the greatest economic opportunity this region has ever had. Indeed, the $25 million received by OSI is now equivalent to over 10% of the Empire State Development Corporation budget for 2009-2010 ($254 million). If there were ever a greater misapplication of public funding (taking the equivalent of 10% of today's State's economic development budget and loaning it to an anti-economic development organization) it is hard to imagine.

Money is fungible. Therefore, we all have a right to know how much of the State's money went into those new billboards on Route 17 that allege drilling isn't safe. Isn't this exactly what Ferguson, et al said they so opposed - the use of public money to influence public policy? Of course, it is and this blatant hypocrisy his partnership needs to be directly challenged.

OSI is heavily influenced by the Rockefeller family, which also loaned it $1,200,000, secured by the stock of a private for-profit entity known as Johnson Hill Associates that, according to the financial statement attached to the tax return, has "an ownership interest in assets and liabilities associated with various Catskill properties."

See page 21 of the financial statements for the listing of both loans (Rockefeller and Empire State Development). This suggests an additional question of why an essentially bankrupt State is loaning $25 million of economic development money to the Rockefellers, of all people, to halt or slow economic development.
Perhaps the answer is found on page 17 of the financial statements, where it is revealed OSI (through the affiliated Open Space Conservancy) purchased a tract of land for $2,100,000 in 2008 and then resold it to the State for $7,762,000 later that same year. Perhaps it is in the job created for OSI Trustee family member Ramsay Adams as Mountainkeeper. Perhaps it is in the property interests of Johnson Hill Associates, whoever they are. Perhaps it is in the private Catskill park the Rockefeller family and friends (including Dan Rather of 60 Minutes fame, where Ferguson was a producer) are assembling bit by bit with public money, thereby buffering and augmenting their own holdings, further adding to the value of their already considerable assets.

Whatever the answer, we know this much - it stinks and the gas industry across the entire country is suffering from it as these people use their money and influence to promote Gasland, run savvy media campaigns, intimidate public officials, spur moratoriums in New York and otherwise spread their unique brand of demagoguery across the region and the U.S. as a whole. Stand up to them and don't let them silence us.

Finally, here is a little more insight on Johnson Hill Associates:
http://www.sc-democrat.com/archives/2003/sports/08August/29/fish.htm

Imagine that - a fish kill by the very same people who now harass the gas industry and demand environmental purity. The article says the "property owners might be required to make a public fishing access or other benefit to the community or ecosystem." I wonder if that ever happened ...

Thomas J. Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company
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Honesdale, PA 18431
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http://www.shepstone.net