LETTER from DICK DOWNEY Gas Demonized, But CO2 Levels Keep Going Down To the Editor: Brian Brock’s recent letter to the editor (“Renewables, Not Gas, The Cleaner Way To Go,” 1/23-24/20) misses the forest for the trees. In citing a one-year (2018) up-tick in U.S. energy-related CO2, he conveniently skips the long-term role of gas in lowering emissions. A week earlier, the Energy Information Agency’s three decade (1990-2021) emissions report shows CO2 emissions dropped to 1990 levels as shale gas…
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LETTER from DICK DOWNEY Benefits Of Gas Aren’t Fossil-Fuel Fiction To the Editor: Bob Eklund (“Praise For Fracking? Let’s call It Fossil-Fuel Fiction,” Jan. 2-3, 2020) and I are opposing veterans of the Gas Wars and almost friends. The environmental and economic benefits of gas are NOT fiction. The EPA reports CO2 emissions peaked in 2007 as gas replaced coal in electric power generation. By 2017 emissions dropped 28 percent to 30-year lows. Emissions fell another 2.1 percent last year,…
LETTER from DICK DOWNEY No Natural Gas Upstate? Politics Is The Reason To the Editor: Tom Morgan’s column, “Frack Bust? Or frack Boom?” (10/10/19) cited multiple studies showing the safety and economic benefits of the shale revolution. Naturally, it drew the usual flurry of nay-sayers. Jay Fleisher, Ph.D., worried about shallow Marcellus formations in the Catskills and Northeast Pennsylvania. As a geologist, he should know most Catskill shale is “cooked” and therefore out of play. The well depths of Northeast…
LETTER from DICK DOWNEY Affordable Power Needed: For Now, That Means Gas To the Editor: Adrian Kuzminski’s latest editorial, “Refocus $500M From Pipelines To Renewables,” plays three-card monte with reality and the truth. Mr. Kuzminski questions NYSEG’s petition to the Public Service Commission (PSC) for a rate increase. In particular, he objects to the allocation of $203 million (not $500 million as headlined) toward upgrading and expanding capacity of the DeRuyter gas pipeline servicing Oneonta. He states, “To cover costs…
Letter from DICK DOWNEY Gas Generated Electricity Quicken Way To Achieve Decarbonization Goals To the Editor: Adrian Kuzminski’s June 13/14 column, “If Facts Can’t Defuse Deniers, What Can?” opens with the passage from the New Testament where Pontius Pilate asks Christ, “What is Truth? (John 18:38). This is an eternal question, always relevant, especially today. The column devolves into an attack on “Climate Change Deniers,” people skeptical of the dogma and prophecies of “The Climateers.” Climateers would have us make…
from DICK DOWNEY As Otsego County Dithers, China Plans 700 Coal-Fired Power Plants To the Editor: Oneonta needs natural gas. The latest skirmish in local Gas Wars is over a decompressor station in the old D&H railyards. NYSEG’s gas feed to Oneonta is seasonally limited. There’s no guarantee of supply to large users during protracted cold spells. NYSEG won’t upgrade the feeder line for years to come. Businesses and our local IDA support the decompressor station; the anti-gas faction oppose…
Future Requires ALL Forms Of Energy, Including Affordable, Plentiful Natural Gas To the Editor: Dan Buttermann’s letter in your editions of Feb. 21-22 headlined, “On Energy Future, State Must Pick Right Side,” has the right title but supports the wrong side – renewables only, no new gas. Unfortunately, the state (Governor Cuomo) shares Mr. Butterman’s view. Now the consequences are beginning to show. Con Ed announced no new gas hook-ups in Westchester County. A six-acre urban renewal project in…
Unatego To Sell School To Agzeit Unatego Central school board member Dick Downey was one of two board members to vote tonight against AgZeit’s proposal to redevelop the Otego Elementary School building into an indoor produce-growing enterprise. The board narrowed the building’s fate from four to two proposals: one from AgZeit, which intend to create an indoor farming facility; and The Kildonan School, which hoped to open a secondary school for students with Dyslexia. The board opted for AgZeit’s proposal,…