Our Water

Here's a shot of a barge sailing under the Rip Van Winkle Bridge on the Hudson River. Industry and waterfronts go hand in hand with easy access to transport goods by sea. But after the disaster in the Gulf, I began to wonder about environmental issues happening in NY's water system that I might not even know about. NYH2O is a watchdog organization that protects our drinking water and our waterways from pollutants and natural gas drilling. Needless to say, I joined their organization and their facebook fan page.

I find it hard to believe that drilling for gas or oil is a more financially profitable way to gain energy than investing in solar and wind. Catastrophic disasters aside (as if I could put it out of my mind), how much does it cost to lobby to change policy, pay off the MMS, drill a mile below the surface, build and maintain the rig-- that figure alone is something like 800 million a rig. Imagine how much further along we might be as a society if the oil industry hadn't set up all the rules for their own benefit?