Otsego County faces many issues and among them is the fact no natural gas means no jobs. Trendy fractivists are just fine with that, but others? Not so much.

Lately the antis have been petitioning the Otsego County Legislature to ban gas trucks carrying CNG from Pennsylvania across Otsego County to the Iroquois Pipeline in Manheim, New York.  From there the gas can go to NYC or New England.  

The trucks are used because the antis and Governor Cuomo have stopped construction of pipelines in NYS.  I recently spoke to our County Legislature and reminded the members that pipelines are safer than trucks because pipelines don’t tip over.

Mike Zagata’s column and Jody Zakrevsky’s op-ed last week delivered a nice one/two punch to the “no gas, no way, keep-it-in-the-ground” crowd who are ideologically tethered to an anti-carbon agenda.

Mr. Zagata, the former DEC Commissioner, wrote his letter from an environmental/ scientific point of view. He spoke of the universality of carbon dioxide in nature, industry, and modern life. In a series of questions, he exposed the hypocrisy of protesters who single out fossil fuels, especially gas, without acknowledging the benefits enjoyed by the protesters themselves. All forms of energy have their downsides, a fact that the protesters rarely acknowledge or may even know.

Mr. Zakrevsky of Otsego Now, Otsego County’s one-stop shop for economic development, listed the real effects of local obstructionist actions against gas. Almost five hundred local jobs have been lost due to the unavailability of affordable energy. That’s just from two firms looking to relocate/expand in Oneonta. He noted several local small businesses who banded together for expanded pipeline capacity. They’re looking for gas. Un-mandated, un-subsidized, market-priced, cheap energy GAS!

Mr. Zavretsky is not alone in his economic analysis. Mr. Zavrevsky’s predecessor, Sandy Mathes, addressing the Otego Town Board early in his tenure, noted the two main factors businesses look for in expansion — good infrastructure and cheap energy. Mr. Mathes expanded on this theme while addressing the Schenevus Town Board, preparing a site to be marketed as a distribution center. He added “shovel ready” permitting to infrastructure and, during the Q & A, added PILOT tax relief and cheap energy as necessary elements to counterbalance New York State’s high taxes and regulations. Again, GAS!

Read more:

http://naturalgasnow.org/otsego-county-learns-no-natural-gas-means-...