So we've hit mid-summer and so far, so good in the Catskill High Peaks. Well sure it's been hot and dry, more of both than most of us would like but it's not as if we actually get to choose. Dry weather though does bring lots of weekend visitors and sell plenty of cold drinks, good chunks of our regional economy need those things. So we'll stick with the hot and dry since it's all we got.
No crises are evident locally except for this week's discovery of the long-dreaded ash borer beetle, potentially a huge problem for an area once famous for its legendary ash baseball bats. Meanwhile Phoenicia is gearing up for a weekend of great performances by world class artists fresh from the Met and elsewhere, all thanks to our own local talent, both vocal and organizational, and a huge amount of homegrown support from every quarter. To judge from the energy it's garnered, the Phoenicia Festival of the Voice has been a success before its first note's even struck. We hope you'll all be there.
Shandaken, Olive, all the towns of the 28 corridor seem to be puttering along well enough despite our borderline bleak economy. In what's become a pleasantly normal, Ulster County government is running better than it has... probably ever. But beyond our sylvan valleys this summer things are a bit wiggier. State Senator Bonacic, long a major booster for regional gas exploitation, wisely did a quick 180 degree turn in favor of an 11-month moratorium on hydrofracking, sought by amongst others, his Democratic challenger this November David Sager, whose views are clearly in line with some of the strongest regional sentiment on any subject evidenced here in years.
So on this fracking issue which we've been covering for over two years, for now we'll say this: Our state DEC's pathetically obvious inability to manage this issue or regulate this industry might be funny if it were a joke, though unfortunately it isn't. Hopefully the Assembly will concur with the State Senate next month and vote to slow down DEC's permitting process long enough for the US EPA to complete its studies, issue its long-awaited report, and provide some direction on the subject that states and people can actually trust. The Russians who produce more natural gas than anyone in the world, are waiting for that US EPA report before deciding to invest another dime in their own infrastructure or drilling plans.
If you think our dysfunctional state government is better equipped to assess this without help than the smartest guys in Russia, you might want to think again.
Less local but even farther off the Wiggy Scale is serious talk emanating from the US Senate Republican leadership about repealing the 14th amendment to the Constitution, dating back to 1868 and guaranteeing Due Process and Equal Protection under the law and forbidding states from denying anyone's civil or political rights. Whatup with that you ask? Well it seems the entire Senate GOP braintrust - John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, and John Kyle - all want to dump the thing, because it also guarantees citizenship to anyone born in this country, something which annoys them no end. And since the odds of this being approved by 3/4 of the states and 2/3 of Congress are incalculably ridiculous, it's clear they're doing it as a blatant appeal to the same racist and anti-immigrant paranoia behind the recent Arizona law compelling racial profiling by police. Could be that's what wins elections in some states, and while we don't KNOW that these guys are drinking frack-water.. it sure smells to us like Benzene talking. BP