The BP oil spill should teach all of our legislators, regulators, friends and neighbors a huge lesson – the health of our Rivers, oceans, wetlands, streams, matter – they matter for every level of life. In addition to clean waterways for drinking water, recreation, and our health, we need the clean water and healthy habitats to sustain the jobs that sustain lives, families and whole economies. This is as true here along the Delaware River as it is in the Gulf. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network’s recently released River Values report proves that. (found at www.delawareriverkeeper.org)And yet, now that the spill has been weeks in happening, once again we hear conservative anti-environmentalists attacking any and all who are seeking strong laws and regulations and actions to protect our rivers, oceans and environments from the never-ending search for fossil fuels – whether it is oil drilling in the ocean, natural gas drilling in the Upper Delaware, or drastic deepening projects and LNG facilities to make transportation of that fuel cheaper for the oil companies and their profits. This reality despite that seeking cleaner energy strategies are better long term job creating and community protecting investments.
(Please notice I said “conservative anti-environmentalists” not republicans. This is not a political party issue. Protecting our environment should be the highest priority for all political parties and at many points in history has been.)We can no longer allow extremist groups rob us of the environmental protection we deserve and need – they do it by capturing the message and capturing the press. But if we were to rise together in a common voice for the River, for the environment, for the health and future of our selves, our families, our children, and the critters that enrich our lives the extremists could not rob us of the message and in so doing rob us of strong action by our political representatives.
When the extremist anti-enviros steal the message our politicians seem to cower. Instead they need to stand strong and proud and take back the message, stressing that we best protect ourselves when we best protect our River and environments. If the politicians on either side of the aisle don’t have the backbone to take back the message and take the action on their own to protect our River and environment, it is our job as the public to give them the strength and spine they need to help them -- to force them -- to do it.
We all need water....with only 2% of water on the earth being freshwater and having this same water recycled since the dinosaurs - water is precious. All people (regardless of politics) understand the neccessity and sacredness of water. Last week hundreds of people heard the call from Delaware Riverkeeper Network and came out to the DRBC meeting to voice their concern for protecting our river. While Hess, Newfield, and other large companies work to use this freshwater to frack natural gas from marcellus shale a mile below the earth. When will we see that corporations do not have the same values as people? When will we see that regardless of our politics, we all need water and we cannot rob water today from the generations to come in the future? When will we understand that contaminating a neighbors water supply to get money, is not acceptable? Corporations pit neighbor against neighbor with this issue --- when really the enemy is the big Oil & Gas industry that will leave communities high and dry when contamination does occur. They do not have our needs or our communities in mind and history shows us this time and time again. The Oil & Gas industry is who we need to be watching on every level and we need to unite to say enough is enough - these corporations can no longer dictate our decision-makers. It is a new era. No more old technology getting blood from a stone. Conservation, solar, sustainable technologies are what we need to employ to dig us out of this fossil fuel hole. This is long overdue and the world is watching.
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