“Not in My Backyard” is a very understanding feeling because a person’s property is protected by the Constitution. I live in a very rural subdivision with two cornfields within five hundred feet. I would be very upset if a sandpit opened in one of the fields. I would probably be concerned if a 30 inch gas or oil pipeline was put off the end of my backyard. I can even make it a vertical concern by not wanting our local airport to be expanded to take large jets since I would be under the glide path for landings. I wouldn’t want a pollution spewing industry to locate west of me. All of this is obvious and understandable especially if I don’t get compensated for the inconvenience.

            Here is the moral problem. A huge deposit of copper lies under a Sonora Desert Canyon which is the most sacred place for the Apache Nation. People think the mine should go forth because it is an Indian place but how would they feel if it was the Vatican or Bethlehem? Pennsylvania has the world’s biggest reserves of natural gas but the northeastern states don’t want more pipelines causing them to import liquefied natural gas and propane from Trinidad when existing lines couldn’t supply enough. To get that gas in Pennsylvania and the oil and gas in the Permian and the Dakotas we need to use special sand. Some of that sand is across the road from Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. We have foolishly become dependent on plastics, gasoline, nitrogen fertilizer and hundreds of other products made from petroleum and coal. Getting those fuels out of the ground for our use require destroying or damaging the subsurface, surface, water ways, and air — so who in their right mind wants that damage inflicted on them?

            Every day people are being sued to gain access to their property so the rest of us can benefit. It is easy to say we need to do it if it isn’t going into my backyard!