LETTER from AL COLONE

We Need More Natural Gas?

For What?

To the Editor:

Why does our area need more natural gas?  Since the ’50s and ’60s, our area industries have, for the most part, shrunk in size, while employment levels have been buoyed by the growth in the “not for profit” service sector.

Our area has had no population growth since the Civil War!  Indeed, we’ve lost population since the 1960s; our young people have out-migrated, leaving for opportunity in other places; and they’re never coming back.

So, why do we need more natural gas?

The standard argument for natural gas expansion is that we need the resource to lure new business to the area and that natural gas is a key promotional asset.

Gosh, we’ve had multiple generations with sufficient levels of natural gas to have promoted all kinds of new business growth, with virtually nothing to show for it.

With the prospect of further slowing of area business, with little anticipation of significant area business expansion, it would seem our current levels of supplied energy can continue to adequately sustain our area, perhaps occasionally augmented with the incremental addition of renewables – primarily solar, wind and perhaps biomass.

I think the natural-gas limitation argument is simply an excuse for doing nothing; so too are the arguments towards the lack of trained workforce, workforce housing, and other excuses.

ALBERT COLONE

Oneonta