All, Today's rally and lobby day in Albany on the dangers of gas drilling was both invigorating and sobering. After being driven into the indoors by a driving rain, close to 1000 people crowded into a space off the concourse where, in spite of the lack of a microphone, a series of speakers addressed the enthusiastic crowd. The main calls were for a withdrawal of the DSGEIS and for a ban on shale gas fracking. Thre was little evidence I saw of the pro-drilling rally, apart from a few people out in the rain early on.
The sobering part came, for me at least, in interviews with staffers in the governor's office and in the office of Senator Antoine Thompson, chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation committee. In both cases we hit resistance to a withdrawal of the DSGEIS and what I can only describe as a lack of a grasp of the issue. The governor seems committed to seeing the process unfold. After starting off saying we had to be ready to compromise if we wanted to continue to negotiate, Antoine Thompson's aide suggested that while NYC was interested in protecting its water, upstaters were interested in jobs. It was a good start, but we have a long ways to go. For a first time effort, the organizers in spite of some glitches succeeded in putting together an event which I hope put some kind of a dent in Albany. I'm grateful to them for their efforts. One of the security persons was reported as saying that he hadn't seen as big a rally in the capitol in a long time. A. -- ---------------------------------------------------- Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. President Sustainable Tompkins 109 S. Albany St. Ithaca, NY 14850 www.sustainabletompkins.org 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-220-8991 (cell) 607-216-1552 (ST office) 607-216-1553 (ST fax) [email protected] _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
