Richard DowneyUnatego Area Landowners Association
There’s nothing so disingenuous as a fractivist making the claim natural gas is unnecessary, especially when he or she is talking about some one else’s job.
Since we are not invited to the corner table at The Four Seasons or the boardroom of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), it’s hard to know what narrative the renewables crowd will promote in their next round of agitprop. Early this fall we got an indication when fractivist Brian Brock’s Letter to the Editor to the Oneonta Daily Star argued that the Constitution Pipeline from the Marcellus gas fields of Pennsylvania to New York City (and points between) was “unnecessary” for a major local employer, Amphenol Areospace. Amphenol employs about 1,000 people in Sidney, New York. For years it’s been bleeding jobs to lower cost venues, stateside and overseas. Amphenol in Sidney needs cheap energy to remain competitive and retain New York jobs; not that anyone from NRDC, et al gives a damn.
“Unnecessary” was a new word in the arsenal of invectives launched against “anything gas.” It was spawned by an August report sponsored by GDF Suez, an LNG exporter with business in the Northeast. The report questioned the necessity and costs of pipelines to New England. The term “unnecessary” was quickly attached to the Spectra, the Pilgrim, the Northeast Energy Direct, and the Constitution Pipelines as well as well as other fossil fuel delivery systems. It became a common term in the blogs, the YouTube interviews, even a Massachusetts AG report, also sponsored by an anti-gas outfit. “Unnecessary” is now a necessary element in the war against the pipelines.
After a few dueling Letters to the Editor, below is my latest take on the situation:
In his October 23rd Letter to the Editor, Brian Brock presents a stack of irrelevant factoids to back up his assertion that Constitution Pipeline gas isn’t “necessary” for Amphenol Areospace (pictured below). Amphenol’s gas could have been patched in from the Dominion Pipeline two counties over, transferred to the EmKey pipeline, then further transferred to a non-existent 25 mile pipeline that would have to be built by distributor Leatherstocking. This crazy quilt route sure beats a two mile tap off the Constitution, right? No problem, says Mr. Brock.
Mr. Brock should have pushed his chair away from the computer, picked up the phone, and investigated the problem(s) by calling the principals and employees of gas driller Gastem, the Leatherstocking and Constitution Pipelines, and Amphenol Aerospace. He might have discovered some core truths.
Gastem, the original potential supplier of Amphenol’s cheap energy, along with other small drillers, watched their capitalization wither to zero while Governor Cuomo dithered, only to finally ban fraccing for political purposes. Leatherstocking Pipeline, a distributor, has refocused development to Pennsylvania due to New York’s regulatory uncertainty and we can expect to see a lot more of that if New York keeps doing business this way. The Constitution Pipeline, originally scheduled for completion in 2015 and a boon to both upstate New York and new York City, still awaits a politically-delayed DEC permit.
Finally, the Governor promised Amphenol cheap gas from Pennsylvania via the Constitution as part of his incentive to keep Amphenol in New York State. With pipes stacked in the yard, ready to go, Amphenol still waits for cheap gas from the proposed pipeline.
The Governor tells us New York is “open for business.” Really, Governor?
But let’s dig deeper. Natural gas clobbers renewables in the marketplace and realville. The only way to achieve price parity is to impede natural gas (price goes up) and massively subsidize renewables. The price of renewables then SEEM to go down in the eyes of the consumer. Massive subsidies, however, means the taxpayer underwrites the costs. The crony capitalists of renewable energy, the guys lunching at Le Cirque and meeting in the offices of the environmental foundations, reap the profits with limited risk. This is happening on both the federal and state level. All the noise about dangers of piping gas and lack of necessity is a smokescreen for a basic fact — billionaires are making more billions speculating on your taxpayer dollars.
That’s what‘s happening. Mr. Brock’s “unnecessary” is just a little more static to divert attention.
Richard Downey is a retired New York City schoolteacher and a member of the Unatego Board of Education and the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York.
From Al Gore’s standpoint …. the war on natural gas is absolutely necessary. “Follow the money…”
Al Gore’s vision is a world of socialist nonsense. To achieve this he needs an army of sycophants. He definitely unlocked this with the illusion of anthropogenic climate change. This is not science based, it is a belief system and the sycophants are fully on board. “The fate of mankind, as well as of religion, depends upon the emergence of a new faith in the future. Armed with such a faith, we might find it possible to re-sanctify the earth.”
Al Gore’s media approach “I believe it is appropriate to have an ‘over-representation’ of the facts on how dangerous it (global warming) is, as a predicate for opening up the audience.” There are no facts being put forth by the Global Warming Alarmists – none. There is plenty of over-representation going on from the liberal media and the liberal constituency is lined up behind the leading lemming being good citizens of the earth or some other such nonsense.
Al Gore thinks that world government is a good thing because he believes he will be part of its leadership. One of the generic goals here is to bleed the US of its wealth.
What is Al really doing? (For people who believe that you are what you do, not what you say) Gore, along with David Blood, founded the investment firm Generation Investment Management (GIM), which claims to “embed sustainability into the mainstream capital markets.” As of Dec. 31, 2014, funds at GIM were valued at $7.3 billion. In general, green energy is a trillion dollar business that makes no sense for American consumers. The first case of true cost is starting to show its head in California where they now pay about $2.85 for a gallon of gas while the rest of the US is paying $2.15. All the words and all the “over-representation” will not change the true cost – and sooner or later that cost will reach into our wallets or take our jobs away with devastating effect.
“Walk-the-walk”? (For people who believe that you are what you do, not what you say) Al Gore’s homes and getaways use 10 to 20 times the amount of energy that we do. So, I guess his message is do what I say not what I do. Sorry about the logic there.
So, in order to have a solid investment strategy the market needs to be skewed to allow “clean energy” and the rest of that BS to make a profit (at our expense). Is Al Gore better off today than he was in 2001? “… leaving office in 2001, Gore reported assets of less than $2 million. Today it is estimated to be at $173 million. In less than fifteen years, Gore has amassed a personal fortune and much of it was from making investments first in clean energy, and then in IT and biotech.” How are the Sycophants doing? Just ask a relative who lives in California. The future of NY, NY? Their bills are coming.
The money game. It’s working well for Al Gore and that is for sure.
{{sycophant – a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite}}
The other day I was listening to a The Great Courses lecture on “The Economics of Uncertainity”. The professor had been hired by Marathon Oil to help them hedge oil prices back in 2007. He asked if they were concerned about alternative energy and they replied that they had been investing in it for years and would be ready when it was viable. It would seem that Mr. Gore was not the only one to see what Mr. Leary can’t.
New information (climate change) and new technology (fracking and renewables) create new opportunities (“creative destruction”), usually at the expense of the old (coal). The big oil companies long ago became energy companies with investment all forms of energy. They will try to maximize their huge investment in oil as long as they can, but when the time comes, expect to see Marathon or Exxon on the side of a wind turbine or solar panel. I also expect them to start buying the assets of over-leveraged natural gas companies as part of their “all of the above” energy strategy.
Scientists have been talking about human caused climate change for over 40 years. It has been accepted science for the last 20 years and an economic and social necessity in the last 10 years. If, for whatever reason, you can’t, don’t or won’t see what is obvious, then you are as useless to the natural gas movement as the anti-gas types who demand it be totally safe before allowing it.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1071299652904038&id=192933234074022&refid=17&_ft_=top_level_post_id.1071299652904038%3Atl_objid.1071299652904038&__tn__=%2As
Unnecessary and. unconstitutional as the federal agency that grants certificates for the pipelines is a rogue agency according to a certain prominent and influential “environmentalist” with the last name Kennedy.
Different pipeline threat to national security:
http://www.troyrecord.com/general-news/20151126/nassau-supervisor-proposed-pipeline-a-threat-to-national-local-security
The Spectra NY NJ pipeline into manhattan? Secret export plan according to NYC fractivist groups like United for action and “sane” energy project. Ludicrous claims by activists just repeated by reporters who likely don’t have the time to understand what they are covering properly. Worst of all I have experienced editors unwilling to retract or correct articles that read like jibberish and watched as coverage in nyc on the rockaway pipeline project became more garbled and inaccurate over time.
Mind boggling!
Just another story from an outsider that has No clue of what can go on when NG drilling starts !
Try to follow the discussion here. It’s about a pipeline that some loser with no clue claims is not necessary for a business that clearly could benefit from it. Your constant mewling against drilling has become tiresome, and you have outlived your 15 minutes of self-proclaimed fame and relevance.
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