Protestors are doing victory laps here in New York. Today’s vote in the New York State
Assembly likely has won them another multi-year delay of high volume hydraulic
fracturing permits. The delay is necessary they claim because potential health
impacts were not adequately studied in the Revised Draft Supplemental Generic
Environmental Impact Statement, now four and a half years in the making. Delay is the politically acceptable way to dodge the issue, which will not go away.
Politicians know that the state cannot function without
natural gas — after all New York is America’s fourth largest consumer and consumption is increasing as New York City converts boilers running on fuel oil to natural gas. Politicians also know that there is no real alternative. New York is not particularly sunny nor is it
particularly windy. New Yorkers also don’t
like transmission lines or pipelines or most new infrastructure. But, cowed by celebrity protestors,
and essentially left on their own while industry focused in other states, politicians
caved.
Even Sean Lennon admits that the one generation family farm that
inspired him to form the group Artists Against Fracking, which he co-founded with his mother Yoko Ono, runs on oil and gas. When he was asked about why it’s not powered
by renewables, he said "I'm
actually looking into it. It's a long process. I've met with a lot of solar
companies. I'm looking for the best possible solution, and there are a lot of
options out there."[1]
Well if it’s that
complicated for a single farm, imagine how it is for a village, town, city,
state or a whole country. But then
again, this sort of imagining is not Sean’s oeuvre.
"I'm not an activist by nature, I'm a musician. What I'm
interested in is making music and art," Lennon said on the bus. "I
had no desire to be spending any of my time researching things like benzene,
methane and uranium and well-pits and well-casings and what percentage of
well-casings fail [sic] over how many years."[2]
Politicians are going to be chagrined when the results of
the health studies return and they find that health is improved by natural gas
because it burns cleaner than coal and fuel oil, and puts money in pockets of people who might
otherwise not be able to afford healthcare.
But hey, if Sean Lennon can write energy policy, then maybe
I can write songs.
Till Next Time,
Energy Mom
New York City
Web accessed 3/6/13
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