NYSEG doesn't need rate hike
Wow, an 18-plus percent increase wanted by our electric company. If I read The Daily Star's article right, NYSEG's parent company is from Spain.
My question is how could we, as a nation, let utility companies that are strategic to our home defense be controlled or influenced by foreign nations? I have nothing against Spain, I hear they even have a very good national health care system, and if NYSEG gets this increase, who knows, it may get even better at our expense?
I guess you can lobby for anything in Washington and get it as long as the check is big enough.
I think any increase in the rate at this point in time is not acceptable. The PSC should also stand up to NYSEG and keep in mind the "P" in Public Service Commission stands for "Public," not "Protect Special Corporations."
Joe Scianablo
Cooperstown
Natural gas drilling will impoverish us
Just like the phony gold finish on a piece of junk jewelry, the true nature of horizontal "fracking" is now coming to light.
People in Kentucky, West Virginia, Colorado, Texas and Pennsylvania are discovering that "fracking" for natural gas is not safe and it cannot be effectively regulated.
The resistance to this egregious environmental and human rights violation is beginning. Eight million residents of New York City, national conservation organizations and everyday people are beginning to stand up to the most powerful and destructive industry in the nation. And that battle is about to take place in our own backyard.
Landowners who previously leased their land for a pittance are reeling at the avarice and shameful conduct of the gas companies. How can we trust them to protect our resources when they began this process by willfully cheating and deceiving us? Did you know that Nornew, a Norwegian energy company, is now buying up local properties, taking the mineral rights and then dumping the land back on the market? Is that all our farms, homes and communities are, bits of a Monopoly board to be bought and sold by foreign corporations who couldn't give a damn about our lives and our health? And when our water, our land and even our bodies have absorbed the toxic effluent from their profiteering, they will return home, back to land on which they would never allow such degradations.
The dream of some magic pipe in your backyard from which dollars perpetually flow is nothing but a nightmare. Natural gas is not going to enrich us, it is going to impoverish us. Natural gas is not democratic, it is not patriotic, and above all it is not safe. Grasping for that gold ring will only leave us empty-handed.
Bill McLaughlin
New Berlin
Sign a disgrace
The new electronic sign on the front lawn of the Edmeston Central School is a disgrace, vulgar and makes the school look cheap.
I understand at the coffee shop, it is referred to as "Rowley's Folly." With the present economy, I'm sure the $10,000 could have been put to a much better use.
Leon Schworm
Edmeston
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