Archive: Opinions

Tompkins County is an activist community, and that breeds political correctness and emotional looks at controversial issues.  It's good that people care about their community and want to be involved.  But the passion that is injected into causes often obscures the facts and realities of the situation.

Hydrofracking has been a persistent hot issue here, and while the cutsie Frack lawn signs with the red circle and line make their point, a lot of chatter and rumor often obscures the facts.  That affects municipal officials as much as it does the rest of us.  So I'm hoping our Lansing officials will be at the 'Looking Down from Above: Mapping Potential Drilling Activity in Town of Lansing' session on Wednesday, June 29th.  Because so far Lansing lags behind neighboring municipalities in dealing with the issue.

There are reasons for this.  Two drilling companies explored Lansing and reportedly didn't find much.  So the likely outcome is that some of the less direct impacts are most likely to affect the Town, and the direct ones are less likely.  The Town Board has been focussed on issues they deem a higher priority like economic development to offset the losses from the devaluation of the AES Cayuga power plant, and the move to build a town center.

But fracking is coming, ready or not.  So it makes sense for municipalities to explore every avenue they have for making sure that whatever comes along still allows them to reach long term planning goals without unexpected consequences.  That is the unemotional, unpolitical reality.  What is the science?  What are the economic impacts?  How can a town shape its laws and policies to best insure the outcome it wants?

In the end it's probably going to be more a matter of doing it the right way, rather than just not doing it.  Given that you want the former to have the same or better impacts than the latter.  Updating zoning, planning, long term plans, laws... every tool a town has at hand should be used to make it happen that way.

The question that impresses me in this debate is the money question.  Who benefits and who pays.  Most people in Lansing and Tompkins County will not directly benefit from the drilling.  When you weigh that against the possible costs to local communities it is important to set the whole thing up so that those who benefit pay the costs, and fix whatever breaks along the way.  That's not unreasonable, emotional, or political.  It's fair.

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