In our class discussion today, the company NYCO came
up, as it was mentioned in the Constitution of New York State. I wanted to find
out more about what they did, and why a private company was mentioned in a constitutional
document. As it turns out, it is unsurprisingly all politics, and the one name
that comes up time and time again in the now heated debate over whether NYCO
mining company should be able to mine in the Adirondacks, is Cuomo. In 1985, Mario
Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo's father, pronounced that the Adirondacks needed to be preserved
forever, and began his efforts as a conservation by setting aside a massive lot
of land surrounding Jay mountain as "Forever Wild." Now, Andrew Cuomo
is undoing his father's commitment, and strangely enough, is doing so right
next to the Jay Mountain plot. NYCO is a major employer within the Adirondacks,
which seems to be the reason why he is allowing this 200 acre plot of land to
be test mined as of this year.
So the question is...why? The answer is simple, because
NYCO will give the state 1,500 acres of land to set aside as Forever Wild. Land
equal to or greater in value than that which is going to be mined. NYCO mines
for wollastonite, a mineral that is used in the production of industrial
ceramic, and the operations, says Cuomo, will be supervised to ensure that
there is as little impact on the surrounding environment as possible This
unsuprisingly though, has made a lot of people come to dislike A. Cuomo, since
he has gone against his father, and is allowing the first mining to be done
this year.
In my opinion though, Cuomo is to be trusted here. He has actually
spent more time in the Adirondacks than any other governor, and "since
being elected, Andrew Cuomo has approved the classification of 34,745 acres of
land as wilderness or primitive in the Adirondacks and the Catskills, and
signed one of the largest land acquisition deals in the park in more than a
century, adding 69,000 acres to the Forest Preserve by 2016." -
According to the New York Times.
Cuomo white water rafting in the Adirondacks
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1406285!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_970/ny-adirondack-challenge.jpg
Interesting thoughts. I agree that often when a politician makes a controversial decision of this sort, many of us are too quick to condemn them without assessing the entire situation. The big issue here is the foot-in-the-door phenomenon: What will happen if the test mining is successful? Will NYCO find a way to expand and build more mines in the area? Will other mining companies push to acquire "forever wild" land? I think without knowing Cuomo, none of us can really say, although I feel that prospects for economic gain may trump the forever wild clause in future scenarios.
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