Greed and Gas
Broome county NY, the peaceful hill country that I call home, is becoming very popular as of late. The big natural gas companies are swarming in offering riches beyond your wildest dreams and a poor rural population is giddy with joy. Seems we all sit on a big shale formation that has lots of gas under it. The problem historically has been that the pockets of gas are small, but there are a lot of them. Now that “horizontal drilling” is possible because of the spike in gas costs, there is a mad rush to buy all the gas rights in the area. Leases have gone from the old $5 an acre to whopping $2000 an acre or more! Add the 15% royalties being offered and its a get rich quick scheme of epic proportions. The problem is this, horizontal drilling is a terrible thing and most of the people who signed up have no idea what they have done. Each well uses 1 million gallons of water that they pump into the well to force cracks. They suck it out of streams and rivers sucking some dry. Then they pump it out, polluted with salt, solvents, and get this……radio active ore! Seems we also sit on top a huge radioactive ore formation, the stuff that makes radon gas. This type of drilling ruins peoples wells, changes the water table and a host of other things. Oh, but the money. Forget you will ruin the lives of your children and destroy our beautiful hills, all to feed the wicked pagan economic system that wants your soul. Mammon, thats America’s god, and Americans serve that idol god with all their hearts.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:19 am
How typical and sad to see. Short-term gain at the loss of long-term sustainability is the name of game.
Our reverenced American mammon economy where the enticing gods of usurious credit and instant get rich schemes promise the world to those that worship them, promotes a religion and accompanying worldview of short-term greed and long-term destruction that destroys the land and enslaves and endangers future generations . . . all in the name of “human progress and economic growth,” for which no one wants to be accused of opposing, less one be against civilization itself. “But after all, as there is no God to answer to since man is his own god, and since there is no tomorrow to answer for, why not eat, drink, and be merry today . . . and let the future generations deal with the disaster put upon them by their predecessors. They are gods, they can handle it, and even if they can’t who cares, so long as we take care of number one now.”
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Rom. 1:18-25)”
June 13th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
This buying of gas rights and test drilling of wells (a very expensive endeavor) is going on around me too. Virtually every landowner in my town has sold their gas rights. The big company doing this has a propoganda video they hand out telling how environmentally friendly they are. I understand that some permanent wells are now going in on the other side of town from me. I was not aware the things you are saying will happen, but I wondered what the downside was. With only 1.5 acres, I was not approached to sell any rights. We will see what happens.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
It’s going on here in western West Virginia, too. The huge trucks are ruining my little one-lane road. You can hear the drilling rigs roaring all night. Anything for the almighty dollar….
June 26th, 2008 at 7:20 am
Scott,
Out here coal bed methane has become a big deal. But they recover it by injecting a lot of water under ground, which is arguably a more precious resource here then even oil, which eventually washes a lot of salt into the water table… Oh wait, I think the Romans used salt to poison ground for centuries; didn’t they?
It’s horrible and sad to watch an addict pursue his drug at any cost.. Oil and other fossil fuels are like fiat money though.. it’s hard to imagine life without them.
randall