Anti-drilling documentarian Josh Fox was at the Walton Theatre last night showing his movie "Gasland" to a pretty packed house. After the showing, Fox fielded questions from the audience. In one notable answer, Fox described how he thinks gas drilling will impact the Catskills economy:
What I've found was the utter degradation of an era of boom and bust. We might have a couple years of economic development, but you also have a truck go by every 30 seconds. These are places that no one wants to live anymore. ... In this area, we have a number of billion-dollar industries, one of which is tourism, another is organic farming. All of that sustainable development would be destroyed. If you actually look at a graph of what the region does economically, you're talking about a boom and bust kind of thing. The boom lasts 5 years, ten years, but you're fundamentally changing all the basics of what this area is about. I don't think it adds up. ... And what's going to happen when New York is the only area left where you have fresh water? You're going to have a gold mine of fresh water. You're selling that future.
Josh Fox
