(NOTE: Reposted from the conservation thread.)
Dear fellow PA residents,
I have to say we, the residents of PA, as a whole, have to be the stupidest bunch of voters in our great nation. Not only do we elect the gas industry's Bitch as our governor, but we seem to constantly thank the gas industry for the reaming it's giving us (pun intended).
I hear stories all the time in NEPA about how nice the gas industry people are, how quickly they respond, how much money they are bringing to our area. Here are a few anecdotes:
1. Homeowners' wells become mysteriously contaminated with methane and the gas companies ride in to the rescue with water buffaloes to supply safe drinking water. The homeowners thank them and sing their praise for the quick remediation.
2. Heavily laden gas trucks pulverize roads and bridges not designed to bear their weight. The gas companies ride in to the rescue and repair the damages, sometimes completely repaving the roads. The local residents thank them and sing their praise for assuming the cost and task of infrastructure repair.
3. A farmer in Wyoming County who owns 300 acres signs a lease paying him $5000.00....TOTAL! In the lease is a clause that gives the gas company the right to renew at their discression only. When friends object, telling him he is getting hosed and should sue them for fair compensation, he says the gas rep is so nice and he doesn't want to make the gas company angry.
4. The Honesdale Business Association decided to improve their business in downtown by sending welcome baskets to all the out of state workers the gas companies bring to build a gas pipeline in Wayne County.
5. The gas companies have a town hall meeting in Tunckhannock to address concerns of the local residents. One resident asks them if they flair of the gas at the wells. The rep promises the resident the gas is "so clean there is no need to flair." Meanwhile, no less than 7 wells in the surrounding area can be observed flaring at that moment (Is this the Jedi Mind Trick or a bold-faced lie?).
So we are probably not getting much real revenue through business taxes since the gas companies are clearly smarter than we are and they own the state house. We are not getting high paying jobs, only truck driving and basic labor jobs since the gas companies are bringing in experienced, skilled workers from out of state. We are not getting hotel and occupancy tax revenue since the out of state workers are staying long enough to be exempt from that. AND, we are not charging an impact fee or severance tax even though they are causing damage well beyond that of nearly all businesses in our state.
Yep, we're a pretty stupid lot.
Please, someone convince me I'm wrong.
sadly, Mike