I am so tired of elected officials like Gene Yaw referring to those of us opposed to natural gas drilling as ignorant. Yaw’s recent comment on WBRE that we don’t want to be confused by facts should be applied to himself long before it’s applied to us. Consider that Yaw has flat-out told the people in Dimock that they are liars….that their water wasn’t contaminated by gas drilling….even when Cabot admitted it was at fault for doing so.
Officials like Gene Yaw need to be very careful about slandering members of the public. Particularly when members of the public include Republicans like me who have investigated the real science of gas drilling. You see, rather than rely on industry spin to get our “facts,” we’ve gone to people like Drs. Anthony Ingraffea and Robert Howarth of Cornell University, and Dr. Michel Boufadel of Temple University. We’ve gone to Dr. Jannette Barth who worked in the field of economic research, demand analysis and econometrics for more than thirty years. They are the ones presenting facts Yaw sees as hype or fear-mongering.
Who has Gene Yaw gone to for his facts? The gas companies? The companies that stand to make a trillion dollars from drilling in the Marcellus? The companies that sent landmen out to visit under-educated, trusting farmers a few years ago with boilerplate leases that force the farmer to pay production costs before they see a nickel in royalties?
My heart goes out to Gene Yaw’s constituents. You are being flim-flammed by just another industry shill. When you finally get wise to how far he’s selling you and your area down river, keep me in mind. I’ll be there to help you get rid of him.
My biggest fear right now, though, is that what goes on in your neck of the woods will carry over into mine.
Virginia Cody
243 Riverside Drive
Factoryville, PA 18419
570-945-7621
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Where I stand as a Republican on Gas Drilling
I am not most people. I am a conservative Republican who is absolutely outraged at how far Republicans have crawled into the natural gas industry bed. And if this video at http://www.linktv.org/video/6258/fracking-hell-the-untold-story is evidence of what we can expect from my party, I am apalled.
As far as "fracking" goes, I've gotten my information from actual scientific studies conducted by independent scientists and engineers and geologists who have worked with the industry but have left the field to go into academia; they received no funding from the industry and are completely unbiased. However, you will very rarely hear me use the word; it is not the issue that concerns me as it might more liberal "environmentalists."
I am concerned about the industrialization of rural Pennsylvania. We do not have the infrastructure to support this industry, and it is completely outside the philosophy of a real conservative to force our citizens to support an industry for the supposed good of the masses.
Many of our conservative forefathers warned us to beware the corporation; why aren't we listening? (Are you aware that well sites and compressor stations are being located next to schools and that those schools no longer have fire drills; they have evacuation drills?)
Drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus is a risky venture; even the father of horizontal hydraulic fracturing, Dr. Terry Engelder, admits the risk is great and the industry is learning as it goes with the people of Pennsylvania being offered as sacrificial lambs. (The natural gas industry likes to say it has used hydraulic fracturing safely for 60 years (not true, of course...only 7 years horizontally and at these pressures)...and at the same time needs to learn as it goes? Something is very wrong with that dichotomy.) Right now the industry's success rate (extracting the gas without contaminating water and air) is at 98.5%. Would you get on an aircraft that had a 1 1/2 chance out of 100 of crashing? If you were the 98th car in a row of 100 going over a bridge, would you worry? The amount of risk here is simply not acceptable to my mind.
It is a fact that corporations are in the business of making money. If it is cheaper to risk paying a fine for not following the regulations than doing it right to begin with, the corporation is going to take the risk. We can therefore expect many more accidents, spills, and other errors during the next 30 years. Each one of those accidents, spills and errors will require huge resources to clean up. THAT will be the legacy of the current Republican administration if we continue pursuing this ill-conceived effort without getting better control of it! This industry will eventually bankrupt us.
As far as "fracking" goes, I've gotten my information from actual scientific studies conducted by independent scientists and engineers and geologists who have worked with the industry but have left the field to go into academia; they received no funding from the industry and are completely unbiased. However, you will very rarely hear me use the word; it is not the issue that concerns me as it might more liberal "environmentalists."
I am concerned about the industrialization of rural Pennsylvania. We do not have the infrastructure to support this industry, and it is completely outside the philosophy of a real conservative to force our citizens to support an industry for the supposed good of the masses.
Many of our conservative forefathers warned us to beware the corporation; why aren't we listening? (Are you aware that well sites and compressor stations are being located next to schools and that those schools no longer have fire drills; they have evacuation drills?)
Drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus is a risky venture; even the father of horizontal hydraulic fracturing, Dr. Terry Engelder, admits the risk is great and the industry is learning as it goes with the people of Pennsylvania being offered as sacrificial lambs. (The natural gas industry likes to say it has used hydraulic fracturing safely for 60 years (not true, of course...only 7 years horizontally and at these pressures)...and at the same time needs to learn as it goes? Something is very wrong with that dichotomy.) Right now the industry's success rate (extracting the gas without contaminating water and air) is at 98.5%. Would you get on an aircraft that had a 1 1/2 chance out of 100 of crashing? If you were the 98th car in a row of 100 going over a bridge, would you worry? The amount of risk here is simply not acceptable to my mind.
It is a fact that corporations are in the business of making money. If it is cheaper to risk paying a fine for not following the regulations than doing it right to begin with, the corporation is going to take the risk. We can therefore expect many more accidents, spills, and other errors during the next 30 years. Each one of those accidents, spills and errors will require huge resources to clean up. THAT will be the legacy of the current Republican administration if we continue pursuing this ill-conceived effort without getting better control of it! This industry will eventually bankrupt us.
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