Gene Yaw -- A Slandering Menace

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