[Blogger's note: This speech was delivered by Susan Dorsey of Greene, NY, on June 13, 2011, in Washington, PA — in front of a panel of experts appointed by President Obama's Energy Secretary Steven Chu. To me, Chu's frack advisory board was basically asked to sort through all the chatter out there in order to quickly suggest workable and effective ways of improving the safety — and public acceptance — of hydraulic fracturing in fossil fuels production. But, of course, it has become something of a contest.]
In the 1980s I lived for eight years with two kids in diapers in a one-room hand-hewn log cabin in Chenango County, NY, with no running water — only a wood cookstove for heat in upstate winters. I raised kids and chickens and goats and pigs and a HUGE vegetable garden, in order to be self-sufficient.
We had an outhouse and an outdoor water pump. If windchill was -40 degrees, the water blew straight sideways, while I tried to fill the two five-gallon jugs that I would then carry back to the house — two at a time to balance the load.
So I understand, and also have experienced, what those who would rather have been born 300 years ago PRETEND.
My babies were boys. Because I lost my husband when I was 23, I have always dreaded losing one of them.
I realize the duty of every American to defend our country, but as the boys grew I never could let go of the fear that they would be called up and — wasted.
So, I also can empathize with those who fight gas development on the grounds of fear. It's a powerful emotion.
When I first heard of local gas development, I was naturally skeptical! I sought every information source available and weighed carefully.
Sending our youth to fight foreign wars so that we can control resources safely out of our view on the other side of the earth is IMMORAL.
You can't ask me to sit on this gas, when in the Bible the Parable of the Talents tells us it's a sin to bury our riches in the ground! As landowners, we only want the right to develop our God-given resource! NIMBY's claim the right to institute laws to zone gas development out.
IF they had relinquished their right to CONSUME fossil fuels, we would perhaps be persuaded by their sincerity, rather than outraged at their hypocrisy!
There is a vicious civil war on the streets of every small town around me, and, as you know, war is hell!
President Obama, please, deliver us from this, with an EXECUTIVE decision!
Be a true leader. A Solomon who calls the obstructionists' bluff by offering to cut the baby in half! A Moses to LEAD us to the promised land of domestic prosperity by SHOWING the way!
IMPLEMENT a VIABLE energy policy!
Drill a gas well, bring a soldier home!
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