Editor,

In the Town of Oxford we have zoning. That means you can’t do anything you want on your land; there are rules. We learned that in 2007 those rules were quietly changed so that oil and gas drilling “may” be permitted as a variance in all the vatious classifications of property. When people like me who are opposed to unconventional gas drilling heard this, we had a range of opinions. Some thought that we had been snookered by a midnight deal, others thought that given what people knew about drilling in 2007 that it was an attempt to protect us. Regardless of opinion, the fact is that we do know much more about this process in 2012 and one thing we all know is that many of us have many unanswered questions. In the past weeks we have learned that we knew even less than we thought, as we learned that the state is going to let local communities have an expanded role in deciding if drilling is permitted in their towns.