Reply #3: Natural Gas

[bulldogge]

There are a number of things that are upsetting about it aside from the very real threats you have mentioned. To begin with if people were to take a moment and follow the money they would see these are the same corporations that are in the process of plundering the worlds oil reserves. The propaganda suggest it is a way to stand on our own feet when in all reality it is simply another avenue for these groups to make money at the expense of the earth and her residents. They are not going to stop using oil from the middle east, they are just going to watch their stock rise.

Even if it were safe to drill, which it is not when you consider the risk, as a resident living in an area in which they believe is the largest Marcellus shale deposit in the country I have no desire to listen to the machinery ripping apart the soil, being choked by the clouds of exhaust and dry dirt and in winter watching the snow turn brown from their trucks and tankers. There is a reason I live in the country and not the city and it is to avoid contamination of that sort. I want to hear the birds sing not the grinding of gears.

I think another thing people need to look at is the relationship of energy companies and the local populations they deal with. On an extreme level they eradicate populations and on the other hand people live paycheck to paycheck in pursuit of wealth (they will never obtain) until the well runs dry and the company leaves a ghost town behind. Then everyone is free to develop cancer from the contaminated land and water.

Last year I drove from NY to Colorado. In the process I was able to view the industrial wind turbines in Iowa. It was a visually stunning sight to behold and I am telling you they were as silent as the air they cut across. Though it is such a primitive idea but it look like something out of a sci-fi movie, hundreds of these things dotting the landscape. In our area "we" fought against them so that we could leave the door open for the natural gas companies, go figure. I realize that wind and water energy will not cure our dependence on oil but neither will polluting ourselves with toxins to make some suit richer. Natural gas is not "alternative" energy much less and alternative to foreign oil...but then again I am preaching to the choir.