Thanks Jack.

BTW for other readers, Hamilton is not the Dem. Assembly woman who hit the wrong button. Such occurrences are not unusual, especially late at night at the end of a frenetic session. The Republican leader of the Assembly used House rules to be able to ignore her "game changing" request for correction. I'd be offended by that except that if the rules had been used to override a veto I thought should be overridden I am aware I would simply be shrugging and saying "too bad, rules is rules.YOu hit the wrong button Thanks, and live with it."

I am also not offended by "horse trading" per se. That is part and parcel of the democratic, legislative process. But Hamilton's arguments in her own favor are as disingenuous as they come. Perdue vetoed the bill not because she is opposed to fracking, but because she is aware there is not yet sufficient research available to do an informed short term cost-benefit analysis, and therefore certainly not enough information available to develop regulations to insure fracking can be done without serious threat to water supplies in the short to mid-term.

The United States does not yet have the technology and infrastructure in place to use significantly more cleaner natural gas. Most of the increased production of natural gas brought about by fracking is currently being sold overseas, very profitably for the companies involved and their shareholders. I also understand that it is a temporarily significant economic engine for land owners and economically depressed communities where shale deposits exist. What is clear, however, is that it has not yet been demonstrated that fracking can occur without jeopardizing water resources over the long term, and in the long term, water resources are going to be the most precious and valuable resources we have.

My sister is a water resource engineer. Now retired, she spent most of her working career designing water and sewage treatment plants as a partner in an engineering firm. I was often taken aback by her stance that the first responsibility of corporations was to the partners in privately held companies and to stock holders in public companies, and not to the common good, but I will say that she is pretty objective about weighing the science involved with the management of water resources, and always aware that good business and engineering management of water resources must put quality of water ahead of everything else. Good for business. Her take on fracking is that it has not yet been demonstrated that fracking does not threaten water supplies and the science does not yet exist that permits the development of regulations that require measures to reasonably protect water resources.