Incremental changes

I’m not sure if I like this new routine, but I have been starting my day reading emails with my morning cup of coffee. It used to be that I would ponder the day's realities by gazing out the bedroom window into the deep white pines across the side field. Now, my first thoughts are filled with national and local natural gas articles, the compilation handiwork of Upper Delaware Council Senior Resource Specialist Dave Soete.

These daily missives cover the gamut of natural gas drilling news throughout the country. I scroll through them, sometimes reading deeply, sometimes just getting a flavor. Lately, Dave’s begun to add reader comments to the news articles and I get a glimpse of the schism that exists between those who are in favor and those who are against. Most often there is little middle ground and I find myself reacting from my own bias.

The articles has gotten repetitious as more news sources are picking up the story and there’s an extra step in figuring out what’s new and what’s a rehash of old information. I’ve been amazed at how the overall story is changing, and feel rewarded for the time spent when I see something new and comprehend something differently.

This morning, while reading a piece on the Hewitt State Forest in Cortland County that has been leased, I realized that the state, hungry for dollars, is doubly invested in gas drilling moving forward. Not only will it get revenue, theoretically, in regulatory fees and taxes, the state itself, actually all of us, is a leaseholder. Of course, I already knew this, but what I didn’t understand was the amazing conflict of interest that is created by this dual role. This was further complexified by another story relating a lack of communication between the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Town of Dryden over the issuance of an assessment that there would be no environmental consequences for a natural gas well within the town’s borders. The municipal officials wondered how the DEC could have come to that assessment, without talking to them.

In this scenario of complexities, the two-time investor has now also become the regulator.

Incrementally, our landscape is changing as we become further and further immersed in our consumptive use of resources and information, both as a society and as individuals.

It used to be that I would ponder the realities of the day by gazing out the bedroom window into the deep white pines across the side field with my cup of coffee. Now, my early morning thoughts are filled with national and local natural gas drilling articles.