Response from Gov. Cuomo's Office

[H2O Man]




July 20, 2012



Dear Mr. McElligott:

Thank you for inviting Governor Cuomo to meet with you to discuss your concerns about hydrofracking.

On behalf of the Governor, I regret to inform you that he is unable to accept your gracious invitation at this time. However, because a discussion with you is important to him, he would like to offer Robert Hallman, Deputy Secretary for Energy, to speak with you on his behalf. If you would like to speak with him, please feel free to contact his office at 518-473-5442 to discuss the necessary arrangements.

Thank you again for your thoughtful invitation. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact our office at 518-474-4727.

Warmest regards.


Sincerely,

Nicholas Weatherbee

Director of Scheduling


Cc: Executive Chamber

[H2O Man]

2. gosh

[malaise]

5. Huh?

How rude

[snappyturtle]

6. H20 Man is highly regarded on DU. Please use a civil voice when addressing him.

I re-read the OP and it's simply self-explanatory although I always read H20 Man's posts and know his history with this subject.

Hint: Just ask a question, e.g. "Why do you want to talk with the governor about hydrofracking?"
You would have received an explanation.

[Indydem]

7. Why wouldn't he have been considerate enough to link?

What was his invitation? Did he invite the governor to doughnuts, or tour his property, or to get bent? What was the context and wording of the original letter?

Despite the fact that I raised the point, he still didn't link to the original, still didn't provide context, and still didn't provide any new readers joining this train of correspondence with any idea how the aforetomentioned conversation played out.

The problem here is bad posting. You may not like my attitude, but I don't like getting half of a story and expecting a legitimate reasoned response when I do not know what the letter to the governor looked like.

[H2O Man]

8. Two possibilities:

(1) You are so important that I am forced to use a combination of code and poor posting to keep the secret information from you.

or:

(2) You and your opinion and your level of understanding are of less significance to me han the tiniest drop of urine in the Pacific Ocean.

[snappyturtle]

9. See you have lots of questions. Ask them sans the "F" word and attitude.

Let's not battle each other. imho

[BlueToTheBone]

12. Wow. What is happening

that you are so rude? Did you wake in a foul mood? We're supposed to be friends here and that wasn't friendly at all, fyi.

[Indydem]

15. What is happening?

Terrible community members is what is happening.

H2O Man just posts a response letter he gets from the governor, no context, no original letter, no nothing.

It's bad posting, bad community member behavior, and just plain inconsiderate internet decorum. I am seeing this crap more and more on DU. People who make posts that are incomplete thoughts, or make posts on inconsequential material looking to boost their post count or make themselves feel important. It pisses me off because it leads, eventually, to a community that no one participates in because half the posts are idiotic blather, and the other half is incomprehensible half thoughts.

My anger is good for the DU. You should be angry too.

[BlueToTheBone]

16. ooh, poor baby.

Kicking the furniture make you feel better? Slamming around cause something happened you didn't understand? Ooh, poor baby. I know life is frustrating.

Even I know H2OMan is about water and his 50 million posts are about the struggles of keeping water potable. I was glad to see he's working his way up the "food chain" to pressure the state to protect our resources.

BTW your anger is sort of silly in the scheme of things.

[H2O Man]

17. oh deer!

Didn't that mother of your's ever tell you about me, Rus? I'll have to talk to that woman about incomplete thoughts.

My OP was actually about something that many good DUers have been participating in for some time now. You haven't been, are not now, and will never be part of it. But thanks, just the same, for your contribution to the thread.

[immoderate]

3. Does not say much for Gov. Cuomo...

It appears that he is bought. The governor from NY state should be an environmental leader of the country -- or the world!

I am sorry to hear this. And I am concerned for you. Please take care of yourself.

--imm

[H2O Man]

4. While I remain

focused on meeting Andrew Cuomo -- and soon -- I will take advantage of this opportunity to speak to this other fellow. I'm sure he will approach a meeting with a plan of either overwhelming me/us with facts & figures, or simply writing us off as annoying pests. But I can deal with that. Yes, I can! And it will lead to meeting with Cuomo.

There has been a "new" communication between the grass roots and another group. It has the potential to open doors, above and beyond Andrew's head. I am unable to provide details right now .... though I will, as soon as possible ..... but you & others familiar with my background likely can figure it out.

As always, thank you. Your support is very important to me. In fact, I'm delighted to have the opportunity to talk with you here, on this wonderful forum.

[immoderate]

10. We go back a long way, H2O Man...

You were the first person I "tangled" with when I joined DU, and it was over the nature of religion. And it wasn't long after that, that I realized we are deeply connected, in a way that I feel is "spiritual" and takes precedence over ordinary connections.

The earth has been good to us, and I deeply support your efforts to save it.

It sounds good that you have some "cards up your sleeve," and I look forward to you laying them out. (No, I haven't figured it out yet.) But I wish you strength and success.

--imm

[H2O Man]

11. A long way back,

for sure.

I am, by nature, so crusty and obnoxious that it surprises me that anyone -- let alone someone as intelligent as you -- would bother even talking to me after a "tangle." Ha! Plus, I try not to argue about religious issues ..... maybe it was one of my sons, who used to post as me here quite frequently? Also, I am convinced that God forgives religious people, at the very end.

Of course, it was me. and as I remember it, we had a friendly tangle.

[immoderate]

13. The friendliness of the tangle was a part of my "indoctrination"...

And for a time I hung out in the Religion Forum, which I labeled "the arena!" I became a bit tired of the arguing. I still post there, rarely, and surely not as aggressively. I usually wind up asking myself "to what end?" after I leave.

You represent the fight for "real things" and I admire very much the brave stands you have taken, and that I am (I assume) regarded as an ally, despite our rocky start.

DU is a wonderful place!

--imm

[H2O Man]

18. You assume right.

[grantcart]

14. Good, keep us posted.

[H2O Man]

19. Yes, definitely.

I should have more good news next week.

[Octafish]

20. Glad we discovered it sooner rather than later: The guy's a sawed-off runt with a deep pocket.

Correction: Deep pocket with a hole in it wherefrom his integrity burned out.

The guy had agreed and now he agreed with somebody else not to agree.



Gosh. What could do that to somebody, change someone from intellectually curious, brave and honest to, ah, something else?

[Overseas]

21. Poisoning water supplies by using many hazardous chemicals to fracture shale to get gas--

is still very shocking to me.

All those peaceful TV commercials with the calm voiced men talking about simple natural gas, our abundant reserve of energy, lulled the public into thinking it would all be smooth and easy.

It is especially disturbing when what we really need to do is pour billions into conservation technology to use less oil more slowly to stave off further climatic disruption. Yet our corporate dominated country seems still determined to follow the imperative that we must secure more and more oil and gas at all costs as fast as we can.

We have passively supported brutal warfare "to secure oil supplies," at a cost of trillions by now, and watched thousands of gallons of poisonous dispersants be dumped into the Gulf to make the optics better for the BP Deep Horizon disaster caused by BP's unwillingness to spend more to prevent such disasters and clean them up more safely.

Bill McKibben's latest article in Rolling Stone helped me understand that these dangerous practices are driven more by the oil industry's need to preserve their profitability by upping the proven oil reserves they dominate. Because you wonder, at the very least, why our government can't put a moratorium on dangerous deep sea drilling and shale fracturing until the oil industry can establish and certify to an un-bribed panel of experts that they can do it 10 times more safely.

PR is a powerful thing-- did the oil industry even try to find less toxic ways to fracture shale to get natural gas? -- or just rely on ten years of "peaceful natural gas" ads to pave the way and lull the citizenry into ignoring the deadly realities? Seems to me like investments in PR and sponsoring politicians is where the billions they should have put into improving safety have gone.

Does our leadership feel that toxic shale fracturing that can poison our water supplies and cause minor earthquakes is OK because their friends can afford bottled water? Or can afford to move away when their water supplies have been poisoned?

Thank you for your persistence in pressing these issues and trying to stop dangerous fracking.