To the Editor:
Keep Cochecton Green and Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, two regional grassroots environmental advocacy groups, are asking landowners who have not yet leased their land for gas drilling to take a non-binding pledge not to sign a lease for so long as the proposed method of gas extraction (known as high-volume hydraulic fracturing) poses a threat to drinking water, air quality and public health.
Brenda Seldin of Keep Cochecton Green explained, “I could see the impact that the gas-drilling property-owner organizations were having in our public meetings; one person would get up and claim to speak for several thousand people. I believe that many more of us are committed to not leasing our land, and that our voice must be a part of the public discussion.”
We believe that this agreement will show that the overwhelming majority of landowners in Sullivan County, and throughout the Marcellus Shale region, prize the environment and do not want to jeopardize the health of this and future generations in exchange for easy money from dirty drilling.
The Non-Signing Landowners Agreement can be found on the websites of Keep Cochecton Green <keepitgreen@cochecton.org> and Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy <catskillcitizens.org>.
Bruce Ferguson
Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy
The Catskill Chronicle 
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