Thursday, March 1, 2012

More News Banned in Binghamton: Broome County Executive Reaching Out to Industry

[Updated March 1, 2012 to also show Preston's letter to state officials supporting the Bluestone Pipeline.  Also changed Feb. 29, 2012 to correct for new-to-me information received later that same day:  Preston's plan to create an "Office for Gas Drilling Issues" was, in fact, reported in the Binghamton Press during her Fall 2011 campaign — though it appears to be archived behind a pay wall at this date.]

Interesting, strongly worded, pro-drilling, open-for-business statements here from Debra A. Preston, a Republican elected in 2011 to lead Broome County, a key member of New York's Southern Tear (misspelling intentional).

It looks as though Preston is seeking to counter perceptions that the Greater Binghamton area has, over time, become hostile to this industry, especially in the wake of the Democratically led City of Binghamton's widely publicized decision to have a try at banning hydraulic fracturing within municipal limits.

Christopher Wallace, the recipient of the first, is a Utica-based lawyer (and payer of New York State income and other taxes) who has long represented various operators — on matters both in-state and out-of-state — including the pre-2008 time period, when the possibilities for Upstate shale gas development were regionally unknown.  How far and wide of a mailing this single sample represents, I'm unable to say.

Preston's second letter was written to the NYS Public Service Commission in support of an ongoing application known as the Bluestone Pipeline (written about previously here, here, and here) — which is routed to enter Broome's most easterly Town of Sanford from Marcellus shale gas fields in PA.

Not NIMBY (newsworthy), but YIMBY (not newsworthy) — go figure.

Pro-Drilling Letter From Broome County NY Executive Debra A. Preston
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Letter From Broome County Executive Debra A. Preston in Support of Bluestone Pipeline

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