Bishop Hill New Yorkers want to secede to ensure their homes are destroyed by earthquakes and their drinking water poisoned
Mar 4, 2015 Energy: gas “I HONESTLY thought it was a joke,” says Sandy Pinney. She means the threat that Windsor, her hometown, along with 14 other towns along New York’s border with Pennsylvania, may secede and join Pennsylvania. But it is deadly serious.
The towns are in New York’s Southern Tier. They sit on top of the Marcellus Shale, which is full of natural gas. New Yorkers, unlike their Pennsylvanian neighbours, are not allowed to tap the gas because of a state ban on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) announced by Andrew Cuomo, the governor, on December 17th.
It's remarkable that these people in New York State can look at their near-neighbours' homes being destroyed by earthquakes, their drinking water poisoned, their livestock killed, their domestic appliances turned into flamethrowers and they actually want to share in the carnage! And they are saying that if their political leaders prevent it then they are willing to jump ship and transfer their allegiance to Pennsylvania in order to ensure that they jolly well can have their lives ruined.
Some people eh?
Reader Comments (29)
Sounds to me as if some people in New York state have more sense than their political leaders.
Well, there's a surprise!
Human self-destructiveness knows no bounds. Just a minute, which side are we talking about?
Annnd Pennsylvania's tax structure versus New York's hefty requisite tithings wouldn't have anything to do with it?
Them bums!
Go New yorkers, join Pennsy gas boom!
Is a sarc tag needed for the thickos who sometimes troll here?
Hmmm, any chance that Dorset can secede and join somewhere (anywhere) else not run by Green Climate Change Zombies?
I expect the anti-fracking protesters are very proud of the unrest they have caused, along with the financial mess.
Islamic State must be envious, of these Greens.
New York...Lincolnshire? Not much happens there either.
Those crazy people in New York's southern tier. They describe their economic situation as desolate while across the border people are buying new cars, refurbishing their houses, buying snowmobiles. http://www.newsweek.com/15-new-york-towns-desperate-frack-ponder-seceding-pennsylvania-308523 I guess that"s ruin to someone who lives in New York City.
Outside of where it meets Lake Erie, our northern border is a straight line. Why muck it up? Can't they form their own state? ;)
OK I guess we'll take em in. New Governor, Tom Wolf hopes to change things though so they better hurry! Our local boys will still need the whiskey bars on the NY side for after ours close in the wee hours so somehow find a way to gerrymander that.
Having lived in Pa, it's a bit difficult to imagine how these people couldn't but be better off in a state with a bit more realism than being governed by the metropolitan elite in the far away Big A. It's a bit like most people in the UK would be better off if we weren't governed by the metropolitan elite in London and Brussels.
I think this is how the Greens intend to solve the housing shortage. Trash the economy, devalue the property market, until everyone is reduced to subsistence potato farming, and tell the population they are dying of starvation, so their grandchildren can be happy, living in biodegradable mud huts. Full employment will be provided, rebuilding mud huts.
Perhaps some fact finding trips to deprived areas of New York State by British politicians might be better value for money, than freebies to exotic locations, where they know how to attract and extract foreign money.
Never mind all that - can anyone make head or tail of Roger Harrabin's (who else) piece on the BBC News website, saying that MPs are 'concerned' that conventional power generation facilities (i.e. coal) are being paid to be 'left idle' to 'keep the lights on', as opposed to supporting 'promising new technologies'..?
What on EARTH are they on about..? Coal provides around 35-40% of our generating capacity - are they saying that all coal-fired power stations should be shut down..?
Have any of them EVER been in a power station..? Or the National Grid control room..?
And DO tell about these 'promising new technologies' - windmills, perhaps - which were dumped by our ancestors at the beginning of the 19th century..?
Please tell me I'm missing something...
sherlock 1 you are not missing anything. Harrabin's mission is to promote Green, and spread disinformation about anyone, or anything, that conflicts with his interest.
Makes me wonder how the BBC can afford such an agenda. Unless they see it as investing now, to preserve their existence, and are being commissioned to do so, by people who need the BBC to support their agenda.
Rather than joining Pennsylvania, I think they should become a part of Texas.
Oh - you guys in The States...!
Don't you love and respect your cousins across the State Line..?
Come now - you know how it works.... What's the definition of a 'zero emissions' vehicle in California..? Its an electric car for which the power is generated in Nevada...
It would probably be enough just to break off New York City and environs from the state.
Every winter since I've gotten here, the State has declared a Winter Emergency which allows resources to get diverted from the rest of the state to help the city. Or so I've been told.
I travel the NY Southern Tier Hwy 17 twice a year when I go to visit my brother in Massachusetts. It's a long and beautiful drive. I love going that way instead of taking the turnpike (90). If there were jobs there, I might seriously consider moving there.
Andrew
Mar 4, 2015 at 12:48 PM | sherlock1
In answer to your question, the incoherence of Roger's article is down to him having to avoid acknowledging the truth of the situation regarding the UK's ludicrous energy policy. He is a champion of renewables - the comical form of generation that is expensive, unreliable, intermittent and introduced to tackle the non-existent problem of climate change. Deep down he knows he is wrong but must save face by continuing to publish such utter nonsense. His contortions will only get worse as the AGW scam continues to unravel.
The BBC only gets about £4Bn a year, which is obviously insufficient to allow it to employ journalists who know anything about their subject.
Seems going green pre 2008 was easy, now with no money its a lot harder but our LibLabCon jobbies have not cottoned on yet. Seems NY and California are just a dumb as our lot too, Metropolitan Liberals love spending other peoples money.
Governor Andrew Cuomo should return Manhattan Island to the Native Americans so that it can revert it to its historic primitive state. It's only natural.
Of course that won't solve the state's unfunded pension liability problem. $307.9 billion and rising.
http://www.statebudgetsolutions.org/publications/detail/promises-made-promises-broken-2014-unfunded-liabilities-hit-47-trillion
In the entire history of underground nuclear testing in Nevada did it ever cause an Eathquake in Las Vegas.So what chance has a 500 HP water pump got
The only people opposed to fracking are either fibbing ab out fracking or have been fibbed to about fracking.
Reasonable people who know about fracking support it.
Fracking has worked for over 60 years without causing any of the problems those who make a living opposing fracking claim.
Wind, on the other hand, has in fact failed in every way that skeptics have claimed: Undependable, expensive, bird killing, landscape destroying, significant carbon footprint, operating at a fraction of its stated capacity in the majority of times.
Perhaps UK citizens living outside the orbit of big metropolitan areas and their Green-obsessed politiciqans could declare their areas to be a part of sensible former colonies such as NZ, where frakking has been used unremarkably for decades. Our citizens are fully aware that earthquakes, which we are familiar with, are not caused by frakking.
Many little quakes diminish the gathering stresses along fault lines. Fracking wrought quakes ward off The Big One.
Let's go with the Precautionary Principle and frack even where there aren't fault lines. Then, when faults don't develop, we're vindicated in Our Principle.
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There's even a town:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suzieaim/2525839581/
Junk Science Week 2015: New York’s phoney fracking ban
"In the entire history of underground nuclear testing in Nevada did it ever cause an Eathquake in Las Vegas"
Yes, could be felt in LV. Often remarked upon at the time. major issue was whether there would be amplification.
I am from Northeast Pennsylvania originally. I was back there five years ago when the fracking was just beginning. Old friends that had small family farms were driving Ferraris and one Lamborghini from their signing bonuses. When I went back this year they were still raking in cash. I can understand why the Lower Tier folks are jealous. Signups are smaller, too much gas drove the price down a lot, but 500 acres at $1000 an acre is still half a million.