The only thing you need to know to understand the importance of having a dark night sky is that dung beetles use the Milky Way to navigate their way across the desert. This small fact may seem unimportant, even irrelevant, to our human existence, but it highlights something we don’t think about that often. The night sky has almost always been dark enough to see the Milky Way clearly. However, I bet many of us cannot say for sure that we have even seen the Milky Way in our lifetimes due to the light pollution that is so prevalent in our towns and cities.

As The Express of Lock Haven pointed out in its front-page article on Jan. 31, dark skies are becoming a precious commodity, even in North Central Pennsylvania. This is what is at stake when we build natural gas-fired power plants and natural gas fracking infrastructure in forested areas of Pennsylvania. This area of Pennsylvania is one of the last places in the United States where you can still see a night sky that is relatively free of light pollution. Indeed, dark sky tourism is a significant draw to our area as campers, astronomy enthusiasts, and professional astronomers flock to our world-famous dark skies park, Cherry Springs State Park. These activities are part of a booming recreation industry in Pennsylvania that is often left out of the conversation when discussing how to bring jobs and businesses to our state. The US Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that the recreation industry brings $14 billion per year and 151,000 jobs to the commonwealth, amounting to 1.6% of total economic activity in the state. Dark skies parks are a part of that; so are clean, fresh air, clear streams full of fish, forests full of game, hiking trails, and birds, and clean rivers and lakes that are perfect for boating.

The natural gas-fired power plant that has been proposed in Renovo would be 40 miles from Cherry Springs and much closer to other natural treasures such as Hyner Run, Bucktail State Park Natural Area, the West Branch of the Susquehanna River and other sites. The plant will be almost as large as the small town of Renovo, with 24/7 lights, noise, air pollution, and water pollution. Residents of Jessup, who live near the Lackawanna Energy Center, a similarly-sized plant built in 2018, say they had to put up blackout curtains in their windows to keep out the light, and air filters in their homes to keep out the odors. Regarding the noise, they say they can “feel the low frequency noise from the plant,” even a mile away. They say they can see the light from the plant from 10 miles away.

The Pennsylvania Constitution, Article 1 Section 27, says, “The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come.”

To me, this includes our dark skies. They are worth fighting for. According to the Express article, the gas industry has agreed to limit methane flaring during the new moon. But the Renovo plant will be lit up all day and all night for the next thirty years, through all phases of the moon. Please let your representatives know that the Renovo gas-fired power plant is wrong for our community and the planet and that you want them to pursue economic development projects that preserve the valuable natural resources that make this a great place to live.

SANDY FIELD

Lewisburg

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom