WV Surface Owners Rights Organization in Concerned about Pipelines

Today as I watched the news I couldn’t help but feel a deep level of concern for the future of our way of life in North Central West Virginia. The reason for the concern was the level of enthusiasm our states governor had while discussing the leasing, drilling, fracturinging and completion of wells and pipleines on the public lands of WV.
Afterwords everybody stood and clapped their hands rather victoriously.

I understand the economics of oil and gas to some extent and I also realize that there are options as to what energy we produce and consume. What causes my concern is that recently New York said no to high volume high pressure hydraulic fracturing and the main reason was the negative health effects.

As our governor gave the speech he mentioned funding from royalties for improvement of parks to encourage tourism. The first thing I thought was I don’t want this in my back yard, and various people from all types of professions don’t want this in their back yard. So why in the world would people come to expose themselves to it.

The natural beauty is what attracts them — not gas wells, compressor stations and pipelines along with all the other associated activities. On top of this, as a parent of two students, I find out that there was a decision to remove anything related to global warming from the schools in WV. After this a petition and a lot of feedback from concerned parents this resulted in a change and so the children will learn accurate honest science concerning climate change and all the factors. The point I am getting at is we must be objective. I love WV and the people here, I am proud to call it home.

For various reasons we are stuck on fossil fuels and won’t consider any change. An example of this is we are well suited for renewable energy and this provides a large number of longterm jobs but we still persue every form of fossil fuel no matter what the cost. We are lacking vision and objectivity and until we unite and agree that there have to be solutions and honesty we will loose far to much.

There are so many positive alternatives that provide great economics and healthy environmental benefits but we are stuck in denial as a state. The time has come to act and ask that our energy be provided by safe, environmentally efficient methods and lead by example.

I want my children and future generations to have a healthy environment to live in. I want for us to look at the over 400 studies (mostly peer reviewed) and educate our future generations so that they strive in developing healthy solutions. I want to preserve a beautiful state we all call home. Let’s encourage a renewable, sustainable WV.

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