Cornell Student Publishes “Study” Warning Marcellus Drilling in NY Will Impact Tourism in Finger Lakes
Yet another study from Cornell University about the effects of shale gas drilling. The Appalacian Regional Commission awarded a $7,000 grant to Cornell doctoral student Andrew Rumbach to write a term paper author a study on the potential impact of drilling on the tourism industry in the Southern Tier of New York—specifically in the Finger Lakes region of the state. The “study” predictably warns about heavy truck traffic, scenic destruction and the “industrialization” of our little piece of paradise. One of the the biggest threats? Our tourism “brand” will be tarnished.
One of the favorite arguments used as a smokescreen by those opposed to Marcellus drilling is the classic class warfare argument. But it takes a lot of mental gymnastics to make it work in this case as the people who are supposedly the “fat cats” and the “lucky few winners of life’s lottery” are typically family farmers who have been scraping by for generations, just trying to hold on to the land they love. The fact that some of them “get rich” from gas drilling just doesn’t sit right with the elite city-dwellers. Kind of invokes images of the Beverly Hillbillies.
Predictably, now that the New York Times has delivered a journalistic drive-by hit piece claiming that energy companies are using false data and accounting trickery to overstate shale gas reserves, NYT sycophant leftist politicians in New York State are making political hay from it. For opportunistic politicians, it’s all about the seriousness of the allegation, never mind that the allegation is totally false.
For many, the New York Times is the paragon of virtue, the ultimate source, arbiter of truth, beacon of light in a world of darkness. And of course, everything you read in the Gray Lady is the honest truth—for real!