A recent leaflet from opponents of Issue 21 in Kent disturbed me. Why are city employees using partisan scare tactics? Why would utility bills go up? Why wouldn’t residents be able to run furnaces and change oil? All our charter amendment does is state the basic environmental rights of Kent residents and ban fracking/injection wells.
More worthy of a response is the issue of job creation. First, jobs like fracking and injecting are always locally temporary — operations move from place to place, drilling and injecting. Like strip mining, the fracking and/or dumping is done and then the crews depart, leaving residents to deal with any subsequent damage: water and air pollution plus earthquakes, as documented in Record-Courier news reports. Is part of city government so short-sighted that it wants the fracking/injection equivalent of strip-mining in Kent? Why not try for a grant to create jobs building solar equipment and windmills? Enough people would benefit and enough long-term jobs would be created to outweigh any advantages from fracking/injection jobs. Strive for a Kent Green New Deal, city of Kent officials!
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