Sullivan County, NY - Bracing for Enormous Rush by Natural Gas Companies

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Sullivan County, NY - Sullivan County, and your Pennsylvania neighbors along the Delaware, brace yourselves. The natural gas rush is on, and your lives will forever change.

Prospectors from national energy companies hoping to tap a fertile crescent of gas that stretches from Ohio to the Delaware River are knocking on doors, hoping to secure leases to drill on private property.

Supporters of the gas rush, like farmer Bill Graby of Callicoon, see opportunity beneath the lush fields of quiet towns like Fremont, Cochecton and Delaware.

Gas drilling will be a bonanza bigger than long-awaited casinos, supporters say. Workers in a county with one of the region's highest unemployment rates will find new jobs. Hotels, restaurants and gas stations will be jammed.

"It'll make this area bigger than Texas," says Graby.

Critics say the drilling could do more harm than the massive proposed power line, New York Regional Interconnect, that would slice through much of the same Sullivan area.