Strange Partnerships & Contradictions In Seneca Lake Controversy

The demographics of the area surrounding Seneca Lake in upstate NY is interesting. Watkins Glen and Schuyler County, where salt caverns are at the center of the controversy of LP and Methane gas storage, is certainly a politically conservative area. That doesn't mean there aren't people of a more liberal persuasion but the general description would certainly be conservative. The eastern neighbor of Schuyler County is Tompkins County which includes Ithaca College and Cornell University in the city of Ithaca. A typical conversation among conservatives in Schuyler about their neighbors to the east will reference the 'People's Republic of Ithaca' followed by either a chuckle or a look of disgust.

Don't get me wrong, the folks in Schuyler County are good people who care about each other and their community. There just seems to be a mentality, like so many other communities, that is protective of belief systems, a way of life and an established political hierarchy. As we've all learned over the years, it's in our nature to be tribal relative to food, beliefs and values. Much of this occurs over years and years of living together.

Demographics do change, however and people as well as institutions change too. The economy sometimes forces change. Many times people do not go along with the change automatically. They are often pulled and dragged screaming along the way. Of course there are those instances where people and whole communities refuse to change and there we see the sad results of denying the inevitable.

I've witnessed a great deal of change over the years in the Schuyler County community. People put their shoulders to the wheel and really put tremendous effort into the development of the area as a top rate tourist attraction, building on the development and success of the Finger Lakes wine industry. Hotels, lakefront development, entertainment and art venues, food and wine pairings have all been part of the effort and it's been successful. People are looking at retirement options in the area.

It's with this backdrop that the current fight is taking place relative to the use of salt caverns to store LP and Methane gas to be shipped by rail, trucks and pipe lines wherever the market for the gas takes it - upstate NY, the northeast corridor or overseas. Corporations basically bribe communities with promises of jobs and taxes while at the same time negotiating tax breaks to bring new or sustain existing jobs.

Here's where it also gets odd in terms of partnerships and contradictions. It's interesting to watch those very conservative politicians who run against big government, agency control, mandate relief and paternalistic regulations tell people opposed to the project that they (the politicians) are depending on - guess who? The answer of course is, the big government and its agencies who over regulate, create mandates and in general make a pain of themselves. Suddenly, the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and others have become the experts that everyone should listen to. These are the folks who have all the answers, lets just let them do their jobs. Now isn't that a bit odd? We'll see what happens if a decision is made by one of these agencies to halt the project.

And then of course there is the outright anger about all of those outsiders who want to change everything. You know, the old hippies who live in Ithaca, Syracuse, Elmira, Rochester, Geneva. Yes, all the folks that were marketed to about coming to visit Wine Country and stay awhile - but not for too long mind you. God forbid that one or two of them like the area so much that they decide to invest some money and open a business here. That's one of the great risks of marketing your community. People come, they like it, they stay, they invest and they don't think like you.