| Development is a landowner's right
The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York presented its "Declaration of Rights" today for property owners who wish to drill on their land. We would have invested in our farm, our land, and our employees. We would have purchased a better oil seed press to more efficiently press soybeans for biodiesel. "Nothing that the JLC stands for contradicts what we're trying to do in New York through the DEC," O'Mara said, "and that is to develop a protocol in New York to provide for responsible and safe drilling in the Marcellus shale in New York State as we're seeing going on in shale plates across the country. JLCNY President Dan Fitzsimmons said, "If you own land you can farm it, you can mine it for gravel, you can harvest the timber, you can build on it consistent with local codes. "But we were prevented from doing this by my town," Huntington added. Here's the text of JLCNY's Declaration of Landowner Rights: A Declaration of Landowner Rights Many New York state residents hold valuable mineral rights, including rights to natural gas deposits in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations. With the money from fracking, Huntington said, "We would have updated our anaerobic digester that we put in place in 1984. A member of JLCNY, dairy farmer Jennifer Huntington of Middlefield, said that she signed a gas lease to allow fracking on her land but is presently stopped by her town's fracking ban. As founding father John Adams asserted, "No part of the property can, with justice, be taken from him, or applied to public uses, without his own consent. The basic property rights outlined above will be the standard by which our 70,000 members measure the success of state officials in balancing the rights of property owners with legitimate issues of public concern. We, as residents, taxpayers, and property owners of New York State, have set forth the following "Declaration of Rights" to reclaim ownership of our property and make our voice heard as New York finalizes a plan for allowing shale development that protects our environment and benefits our communities. " The state's current hold on permits for high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing - a technique used to develop natural gas trapped in shale - has severely restricted the rights of property owners to sell, lease, and profit from mineral ownership. This would have benefited the entire community. It's going to be determined by the experts at the DEC - those scientists, doctors, health officials, geologists, those who understand the issue and we support that concept. "All of us believe that environmentally safe drilling can take place," said Libous, whose Binghamton district sits in the heart of the Marcellus shale region. Every dollar that a farmer spends is respent many times in the local economy. |
Thursday, 10 May 2012
Development is a landowner's right
