Our Land, Our Right, Our Future
Lives, Communities, and Local Economies have been hurt by Governor Paterson and the NYS DEC
We must StandUP for Upstate and especially the Southern Tier of NYS
“I am an American” and “We are the People”
Our Jobs, Our Economies are our Responsibilities
If We the People don’t collectively protect our rights…
WE will have no one to blame but ourselves.
Today, as an unemployed management level person, I am here to talk to you about the loss of job opportunities and their trickle down affect on our area…
To better understand who I am…a little bit about my background. I was raised on a dairy farm in the Southern Tier, the oldest of seven children who were taught to live honestly, work hard, help others and live a life of integrity….having been members of the Girl Scouts, 4-H, the Grange, the Farm Bureau, and our local church… we could all relate then and now to the statement, “Our founding fathers understood that our rights and liberties are gifts from God”
• 22 years of my employment has been in the construction industry.
• 15 years have been directly related to natural gas pipeline construction.
• Over 200 acres of my land has been leased for future gas exploration.
As I stand before you today, I know that when the Governor issued an executive order placing a moratorium on drilling in NYS, he made a fundamental mistake, a mistake that has been aggravated by these hard economic times.
The NYS politicians and environmental extremists have run roughshod over the lives of landowners, people, and businesses of the Southern Tier.
Job opportunities have been lost. Upstate is struggling economically. A 13-county tally of the Southern Tier embraces a population of over 1 million people. According to the NYS Community Action Association, Poverty Report for 2009…over 134,000 people are unemployed in our region. The time is now to step up and to standup for our rights, our land and our future.
Last year the company I was working for
• installed over 30 miles of pipeline in the Southern Tier
• utilized a labor pool varying between 60-100 employees.
• logged in over 100,000 man hours of pay to local union employees.
The economic impact of natural gas exploration and the infrastructures delivering the gas from the wells to the main distribution trunk lines is big business. In a recent article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, dated July 28, 2009 author Rick Stouffer referenced, “The Penn State Report entitled, An Emerging Giant: Prospects and Economic Impacts of Developing the Marcellus Natural Gas Play ..found that all the Marcellus shale-related development statewide in PA in 2008 generated $2.3 billion in economic impact, created more than 29,000 jobs and paid $140 million in state and local taxes.
The outlook for this year (in PA) with most natural gas producers still ramping up activity, is expected to produce more than $3.8 billion in economic impact, create more than 48,000 jobs and generate more than $400 million in tax revenue.”
The day Governor Patterson turned his back on the drilling in NYS…the three largest gas companies who had been working with state agencies, local legislators and senators to circumvent the loss of gas exploration opportunities NYS…he stopped economic opportunities, increased unemployment, created a fiscal disaster for local businesses in the Southern Tier, not for a year but who knows?
Natural Gas Landowner Rally, Carol D Robinson, August 23, 2009 Page 2
how long…Mobilization by Fortuna Energy, Chesapeake Energy and East Resources to PA has already occurred.
In September of 2008 in NYS these three companies requested executive action NOW to:
•Immediate approval of a limited number of drilling permits.
•Direct the DEC to approve 100 Marcellus Shale horizontal drilling permits over the next 6 months as part of the empirical data gathering required for proper completion of the Supplemental GEIS.
The Governor could have put a moratorium on those counties which are the environmentalist hot spots for NYC watersheds…but why the whole state?
In Governor David Paterson’s “Bold Steps to the New Economy: A Jobs Plan for the People of New York” 2009 Report there is no mention of the potential economic impact for NYS or the Southern Tier Marcellus Natural Gas Play specifically. He does say that his clean energy goals will create 50,000 jobs..however nothing about the natural gas. He talks about millions of dollars of benefits of this plan….PA talks about billions of dollars of economic impacts and over 100,000 jobs in 3 years according to recent reports.
In the September 2008 report made by the gas exploration companies to NYS officials…they projected 200,000 jobs for NYS and $400-600 billion dollars of economic impact to the state. If the executive action did not occur, then the gas companies would pull out of NYS…that is exactly what they have done…
To briefly explain the overall trickle down affect of the natural gas exploration industry in any given area I do agree with Mr. Patterson when he says, “For every one job that is created in innovation economy, 3.5 jobs are created.” If PA is estimating a creation of 48,000 jobs…using the 3.5 multiplier as Governor Patterson did… the overall impact would be about 168,000 job equivalent. You say how can that be?
There are many different types of businesses that are impacted with gas exploration, well drilling, pipeline installation and construction, well site fabrication and electronic instrumentation equipment. Before the first shovel of dirt is removed and until the first gas starts flowing there are over 40 different types of businesses and jobs that are affected. To name some of them
Engineering Firms
Surveyors
Office Administration
Subcontractors
Environmental Specialty companies
Machinery
Construction materials
Printing and Publishing
Transportation including shipping and trucking
Communication including cell phones, telephone, fax, internet, UPS, FED Ex
Banking
Insurance
Real Estate – including taxes
Hotels, Lodging Places, Restaurants and Amusements
Medical and Health Services
The September of 2008 Gas company presentation also indicated these important economic indicators
1. “Direct capital expenditures of over $230 million in 2008 – industry estimates based on spending to date.
2.“Industry has spent in excess of $2 billion for more than 1 million acres in leases to date.”
3. “Assuming comparison to other shale gas plays apply, over 200,000 jobs will be created.”
4. “Estimated value/impact to New York expected to be $400-600 billion dollars. Although, these are rough estimates, drilling and continued research must occur to further solidify estimates. “
Our future, our jobs and our rights have been violated by the nonconformance of the DEC to move forward to approve drilling in NYS. The one year moratorium has come and gone. NYS hierarchy has lied to “WE the PEOPLE” one more time.
Instead of working with our local leaders, the land owners, the gas exploration companies…one stroke of the pen and a signature of Governor Paterson-- a moratorium on all drilling in NYS went into effect. This one stroke has had a staggering impact on over a million people who are struggling to make it through this Level 5 Hurricane of Economic disaster in NYS… caused by selfish bureaucrats who don’t understand….this is “Our Land, Our Rights, Our Futures” which have been seriously impacted due to political might of downstate and NY and NYC politicians and environmentalists.
We have waited over a year for them to collect data, have open meetings, sift through data, and write regulations….and on and on. Still no drilling….only a new Energy Report released on August 10th…oh by the way it does reference natural gas exploration and they will explore the economic impacts of it….
NOW I say standup for upstate and step up to protect our rights as landowners, as employees, as union members, as business owners and as families. We want what we have worked for, what we have sweated for, what we have sacrificed for, which is the chance-no, the obligation-to develop our properties, and our businesses, and build our futures, our prosperity. It’s our right to have gas leases on our property. Our land, our money, our royalties, our lives. For a better future for ourselves and our communities.
PA is proposing a severance tax on natural gas which would go in to three different funds:
1. The General Fund
2. A Dedicated Environmental Impact Fund
3.Local Revenue Sharing Fund
I say we in NYS should have 75% of the funds from natural gas taxes stay in our local revenue sharing fund since it is our land…we could
•Do away with local school taxes
•Reduce county and town taxes
•Improve education
•Develop local economic opportunity incentives.
•Expand the interest in purchasing and settling in Upstate NY
•Develop new business centers in the Southern Tier.
•Create jobs – which is the most important factor in surviving this Economic Hurricane Disaster.
•Put the money in the pockets of the people who own the land and mineral rights…not in the politicians’ pockets to decide what will happen to it.
Why let Albany dictate any further what happens to our land, our rights and our future. WE are the People of Upstate NY and the Southern Tier.
“Our founding fathers understood that our rights and liberties are gifts from God.”
We need to create a revolution to protect our land, our rights and our future.
“I am an American” and “We are the People”
Our Jobs, Our Economies are our Responsibilities
If We the People don’t collectively protect our rights… WE will have no one to blame but ourselves.
Carol D Robinson, NYS Landowner and unemployed person.
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