why the free pass to these people----

It is just shocking to know that my regions governmental officials, both County and Local Towns DID NOTHING to collect some user type fees from the Millenium Pipeline Expansion....We have serious disruption through our region, even to the extent of stopping traffic , noise, visual degradation, etc......When we had the chance to get monies from this widening of their right-of-way, we collected nothing....An OpenSpaceFund and/or Farmland Preservation Fund funded with THEIR money would have gone a long way to offset the farms and larger parcels taking Big Oil/Gas Company money for these Gas leases.
What is also striking is that we are giving the scenic beauty and our environment away CHEAPLY......A similar shale deposit in the West goes for $15-20,000/ acre while landowners here in Sullivan seem to think $2000 or so is 'huge'----it is NOT.
Where are the NYC Watershed protection folks in all this??? You guys know there are massive water usage issues in this fracturing drilling process...........
The Millenium expansion is the PRELUDE to what we will see in the next several years......It is going to become quite a mess of access roads to drill sites; utility poles to the drill sites, cut swaths of forests; more trucks than you can imagine here in our once rural quiet place!!
And for a fraction of what folks could have gotten if they waited just a few years......Throw folks a smallish check at them and they concede the very soul of this land.
The industrialization is what alot of folks actually WANT to see here~~ well, CONGRADS.
Also, I find it hysterical to think that the so-called 'model' or 'improved' lease that some think they have will prevent in any way a BigOil/Gas Company from doing exactly what they want and when they want it. You are putting up your local lawyers expertise against Chesapeake/Cabot and others teams of lawyers~~~ I only need to mention that Exxon and the Valdez spill from 20years ago---Look up how much they've paid thus far........I surely hope the newer 'improved' leases here in the Catskills imclude millions put into upfron escrow accounts for the violations and pollution we are about to 'enjoy'
When all the time we never protected ourselves from this ultimate form of greed.
Shame on all of us for lacking foresight.