Friday, July 13, 2012

Why Fallsburg Should Ban FRACKING...Uhhhh....No Insurance!

The Price Anderson Act makes it impossible for any American homeowner to get insurance to cover losses from a nuclear accident at places like Entergy's trouble plagued Indian Point nuclear reactors that sit atop an earthquake fault.  Well, seems that the insurance industry is not going to wait for Congress (as in do nothing but squabble) to pass similar legislation denying property/home owners from getting insurance for harm done from the process of Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing.  Nationwide out of Ohio has announced that they WILL NOT COVER DAMAGES caused by this dangerous extraction method:

The Columbus, Ohio-based company's personal and commercial policies "were not designed to cover" risk from the drilling process, called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, Nationwide spokeswoman Nancy Smeltzer said Thursday. 

The process injects chemically treated water into wells to fracture shale thousands of feet underground and release trapped gas or oil. There are rich shale deposits in parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, West Virginia and elsewhere. 

Health and environmental groups claim fracking can contaminate drinking water. The gas industry says it's safe if done properly. Nationwide said risks involved in fracking operations "are too great to ignore" and apply to policies of commercial contractors and landowners who lease property to gas companies.

Do we the citizens want to believe an industry KNOWN TO LIE when they say it is doubtful they will be drilling in our community (at least right away), and do we really want a drilling/mining process allowed in our community when we CANNOT GET INSURANCE to cover damages...like the natural gas accident that blew a house off of its foundation earlier this week?

Contact your elected officials in Fallsburg supporting a ban on Hydraulic Fracturing withing the geographical footprint of Fallsburg.