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.
Friday, September 17, 2010
THIS BLOG HAS BEEN UNDER SURVEILLANCE BY PA'S DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY!
Posts from us from this point on are to be taken in jest only.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Goebbels Alive and Well in PA Gasland
In his brilliant novel 1984, George Orwell instinctively grasped the sinister techniques of modern propaganda. He unforgettably illustrated the theory Goebbels practiced in Nazi Germany: if you control the media and government’s “bully pulpits,” truth and sound reasoning are totally unneeded to work your evil will. As long as people stay busy and scared, and you drown out all opposing voices, constant repetition of shallow slogans and outright lies is all you’ll ever need.
Orwell would have warned us—and Goebbels might be envious—of gas promoters’ play for Pennsylvanians’ minds. Exploiting our economic panic, they rush to drill despite a worldwide gas glut and prices near their historic low. Wonder why? Because, as self-serving liars, they must strike, like Nazis, while our fear is hot—before economic recovery kicks in and Pennsylvanians can calmly assess the manifold dangers drilling poses. A panicked, impatient public, in a nation too busy to think, is Orwell’s biggest nightmare—but gas propagandists’ wildest dream.
Lamentably, the “Goebbels of gas” are living their dream. Via endless campaign and lobbying dollars, and a constant revolving door between Harrisburg and industry, Big Gas has turned our politicians into professional “gasmouths.” The worst cases, like State Senator Gene Yaw and State Representative Garth Everett, even gush like drilling cheerleaders who’ve bedded the entire team. When “never is heard a discouraging word” from so-called “representatives,” the lie quickly spreads that few oppose drilling in Pennsylvania. In fact, hundreds of thousands oppose it vehemently, and find justice and expert opinion squarely on our side. But with limited media budgets, and broadcasters and reps in bondage to Big Gas, we get roughly the media access offered pre-Holocaust Jews.
Industry spin doctors get unlimited access. Generally, they use it for shallow arguments, misleading information, and outright repeated lies. But sometimes, as when dubbing government theft “fair pooling,” they create masterpieces of Orwellian doublespeak.
The deception and shallow arguments are almost endless, like this technology being used safely for 60 years—which blends pretty badly with the other idiocy of gas developers being “infant industries” unable to afford a severance tax. Then there’s the sheer stupidity of calling drilling opponents hypocrites for driving cars—as if a society that sacrificed bike roads and cheap public transport to gas-guzzling autos offers any real choice. And as if WE’RE not the ones working to change that.
But what I love best are the true Orwellian bits, where evil corporate Big Brother gives us all a sloppy wet kiss. Their “Marcellus Shale community” strikes me as a “community” composed of rapists and their unwilling victims. So what’s next, a “Megan’s law community”? And when Chesapeake Energy happily declares “We’re all in this together,” I think, yeah, just like Hitler and Anne Frank.
Patrick Walker, Factoryville
Orwell would have warned us—and Goebbels might be envious—of gas promoters’ play for Pennsylvanians’ minds. Exploiting our economic panic, they rush to drill despite a worldwide gas glut and prices near their historic low. Wonder why? Because, as self-serving liars, they must strike, like Nazis, while our fear is hot—before economic recovery kicks in and Pennsylvanians can calmly assess the manifold dangers drilling poses. A panicked, impatient public, in a nation too busy to think, is Orwell’s biggest nightmare—but gas propagandists’ wildest dream.
Lamentably, the “Goebbels of gas” are living their dream. Via endless campaign and lobbying dollars, and a constant revolving door between Harrisburg and industry, Big Gas has turned our politicians into professional “gasmouths.” The worst cases, like State Senator Gene Yaw and State Representative Garth Everett, even gush like drilling cheerleaders who’ve bedded the entire team. When “never is heard a discouraging word” from so-called “representatives,” the lie quickly spreads that few oppose drilling in Pennsylvania. In fact, hundreds of thousands oppose it vehemently, and find justice and expert opinion squarely on our side. But with limited media budgets, and broadcasters and reps in bondage to Big Gas, we get roughly the media access offered pre-Holocaust Jews.
Industry spin doctors get unlimited access. Generally, they use it for shallow arguments, misleading information, and outright repeated lies. But sometimes, as when dubbing government theft “fair pooling,” they create masterpieces of Orwellian doublespeak.
The deception and shallow arguments are almost endless, like this technology being used safely for 60 years—which blends pretty badly with the other idiocy of gas developers being “infant industries” unable to afford a severance tax. Then there’s the sheer stupidity of calling drilling opponents hypocrites for driving cars—as if a society that sacrificed bike roads and cheap public transport to gas-guzzling autos offers any real choice. And as if WE’RE not the ones working to change that.
But what I love best are the true Orwellian bits, where evil corporate Big Brother gives us all a sloppy wet kiss. Their “Marcellus Shale community” strikes me as a “community” composed of rapists and their unwilling victims. So what’s next, a “Megan’s law community”? And when Chesapeake Energy happily declares “We’re all in this together,” I think, yeah, just like Hitler and Anne Frank.
Patrick Walker, Factoryville
Letter to Editor - 27 Aug 2010 Scranton Times
Dear Editor:
The people pleading loudest for a moratorium on natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania are NOT “environmentalists.” They’re actually regular people…some of whom you may even know. They’re people who teach our children, drive the school buses, work in our grocery stores. They’re people who’ve minded their own business for years, who went about raising their families, working at careers, paying their taxes. And suddenly, these people have woken up to a nightmare: threats of economic and environmental carnage they never thought possible in America.
I’m one of those people. And having never been an “activist” before in my life, I’m amazed at the complacency of those who live throughout the Scranton area who continue living their lives as if this industry of destruction isn’t steamrolling straight for their doorsteps! Do they not realize that the natural gas industry is relying on that complacency? Do they not realize that this time, it will NOT all work out? That we are on the threshold of a return to the days of the coal barons…and that after the natural gas drillers are done with us, they will leave us in even worse shape than ever?
Here’s what I know. I know that right along with our children’s school buses, there will be thousands upon thousands of tanker trucks filled with toxic chemicals roaring down I-81 and all roads leading in and out of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. I know there isn’t a single fire department in the local area capable of handling a major spill or a well blow out, and that the nearest emergency response team is located in Texas – five hours away. I know that the only emergency response plan in existence for an accident is evacuation. I know there are well pads being constructed within a mile of Lackawanna State Park. I know that the waste water (filled with almost 600 chemicals that are carcinogenic and disruptors of the endocrine system in fetuses) are being disposed of by crystallization and sale to PennDot to de-ice our roadways this winter. I know that what remains is being diluted and dumped into our local rivers. (You see, the technology for cleaning those fluids hasn’t been invented yet.) I know that 70 percent of the jobs in the industry are going to people from out of state…not to Pennsylvanians. I know the gas industry hopes to have 168,000 wells in place during the next five years and 785,000 wells in the next ten. I know that hunters who shoot deer that have ingested frack-water from ponds on drill sites will be taking their lives into their own hands by eating the venison.
So. Now that you know it’s not just tree-hugging radicals protesting this industry’s invasion into our area, are you the least bit concerned? I hope so. Write your legislators. Tell them to slow down. Demand a moratorium until this industry gets the kinks worked out.
Virginia Cody
The people pleading loudest for a moratorium on natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania are NOT “environmentalists.” They’re actually regular people…some of whom you may even know. They’re people who teach our children, drive the school buses, work in our grocery stores. They’re people who’ve minded their own business for years, who went about raising their families, working at careers, paying their taxes. And suddenly, these people have woken up to a nightmare: threats of economic and environmental carnage they never thought possible in America.
I’m one of those people. And having never been an “activist” before in my life, I’m amazed at the complacency of those who live throughout the Scranton area who continue living their lives as if this industry of destruction isn’t steamrolling straight for their doorsteps! Do they not realize that the natural gas industry is relying on that complacency? Do they not realize that this time, it will NOT all work out? That we are on the threshold of a return to the days of the coal barons…and that after the natural gas drillers are done with us, they will leave us in even worse shape than ever?
Here’s what I know. I know that right along with our children’s school buses, there will be thousands upon thousands of tanker trucks filled with toxic chemicals roaring down I-81 and all roads leading in and out of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. I know there isn’t a single fire department in the local area capable of handling a major spill or a well blow out, and that the nearest emergency response team is located in Texas – five hours away. I know that the only emergency response plan in existence for an accident is evacuation. I know there are well pads being constructed within a mile of Lackawanna State Park. I know that the waste water (filled with almost 600 chemicals that are carcinogenic and disruptors of the endocrine system in fetuses) are being disposed of by crystallization and sale to PennDot to de-ice our roadways this winter. I know that what remains is being diluted and dumped into our local rivers. (You see, the technology for cleaning those fluids hasn’t been invented yet.) I know that 70 percent of the jobs in the industry are going to people from out of state…not to Pennsylvanians. I know the gas industry hopes to have 168,000 wells in place during the next five years and 785,000 wells in the next ten. I know that hunters who shoot deer that have ingested frack-water from ponds on drill sites will be taking their lives into their own hands by eating the venison.
So. Now that you know it’s not just tree-hugging radicals protesting this industry’s invasion into our area, are you the least bit concerned? I hope so. Write your legislators. Tell them to slow down. Demand a moratorium until this industry gets the kinks worked out.
Virginia Cody
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