tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856275762588405805.post3077036379743275937..comments2022-07-11T05:29:57.141-04:00Comments on NY Shale Gas Now!: JLCNY: A Declaration of Landowner RightsAndy Leahyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16550560528949162611noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856275762588405805.post-36629639459133893362012-05-11T10:49:54.902-04:002012-05-11T10:49:54.902-04:00Property rights are a complex issue and differ fro...Property rights are a complex issue and differ from state to state. I was speaking to a New Orleans businessman a couple years after Katrina about all the falling down, abandoned houses still littering some neighborhoods. I asked him why doesn’t the city just condemn the houses and have them bulldozed, at least to clean up the neighborhood. He said it was because they were private property and the government can’t take private property without paying for it. A whole different view of private property rights from New York, the consequences of which are rat infested neighborhoods of collapsed rotting buildings. This political interpretation of property rights has also led to Louisiana becoming the bung-hole of the oil and gas industry. Nice.<br /><br />In a nation of 300 million, I believe we need a more restrictive interpretation of property rights that take a number of factors into account, including the property rights of others. Local zoning laws help a community maintain an agreed upon lifestyle and environment. My sister lives in a community outside Houston that has restrictions on the color you can paint your house. To an absolutist, an appalling violation of property rights. <br /><br />Can I open up a group home for released sexual predators on my farm here in New York? What if it was next to a grade school? Or as I’m currently zoned for agriculture, how about I open feed-lot for 5000 head of cattle on my 40 acres? It’s private property and I can do with it as I please, right?<br /><br />The answer is no for a variety of reasons, the principle one being that my economic activity would have an adverse economic impact on my neighbors. I can’t enrich myself at the expense of my community. If my neighbor allows a fracking well on his property, the value of my property would suffer and my property rights would be hurt. I grew up around natural gas wells (vertical) in Missouri and Kansas, and generally they were no big deal. A million times better that strip pits and mountain top removal. Fracking is a whole different animal, from the size of drilling pad, to the 1000 truckloads of material, to the all the contaminated waste slag and water produced. It’s a heavy industrial activity and should be zoned as such. Does zoning limit someone’s property rights? Absolutely, that’s their point.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com