Dateline: 10 February 2012
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| These cows died from drinking poisonous fracking water from an accidental spill. The picture comes from this 60 Minutes Clip about Hydrofracking |
Drilling for gas in communities like Sempronius is big business. An enormous amount of money is spent by the gas companies. In return for their investment, they end up making a much more enormous amount of money. Some landowners who lease their land, stand to make a lot of money out of this business activity, as do people like truck drivers and various other businesses.
Everybody likes to see businesses and people prosper, but is making a lot of money in a business exchange so inherently good that it justifies any kind of business activity? To answer this question, I’d like to explain the difference between good business, bad business, and the worst kind of business.
Good business is when there is an economic exchange between two or more willing parties and everybody benefits from the exchange. No harm is done and everybody involved is happy with the business transaction.
Bad business is when there is an economic exchange between two or more willing parties and one of the parties derives a greater benefit from the other. One or more people involved in the exchange are not happy because the business transaction has not been fair, or they feel they have been harmed.
The worst kind of business is when two or more willing parties have an economic exchange that benefits them, but their transaction involves people who do not wish to be involved in the business exchange, and the people who do not want to be involved, are harmed. In other words, the worst kind of business harms innocent people.
I have no objection to any good business transaction. And, frankly, I don’t care all that much about a bad business transaction that doesn’t involve me. But I have a real problem with any business transaction in which I am forced to be an unwilling participant, from which I derive absolutely no benefit, and from which I and my family may be seriously harmed.
Judging from a preponderance of anecdotal personal testimony, reported news stories, and the alarming track record of serious accidents over three years in Pennsylvania (as I wrote about HERE) unconventional hydrofracking techniques present a clear and present danger to the general welfare of any community where they are allowed.
The indisputable fact of the matter is that hydrofracking is a heavy industrial activity, and all heavy industrial activities can be unsafe. But the big difference with hydrofracking is that this particular heavy industrial activity is not done inside a factory where only those who work in the factory may be affected. Instead hydrofracking for gas is what is known as a communal industrial activity.
When hydrofracking comes into a community, the whole community is affected. Everyone who lives in the town is a potential victim.
As an elected public servant, entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the general welfare of people in my community, I am concerned that hydrofracking is the worst kind of business.
If hydrofracking did not have a track record of serious accidents, and it was not a communal activity that threatened the health and welfare of innocent people in my community who have no stake in the business, I would have absolutely no objection at all to hydrofracking in Sempronius.
Therefore I believe the most responsible thing that Sempronius can do is to enact a moratorium on hydrofracking so we can better consider the very serious ramifications of this heavy industrial activity.