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.