Marcellus Outreach Butler
Connect with us
  • Home
  • Get Involved
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Write Letters to the Editor
    • Contact Elected Officials
    • Track Permit Activity
    • Local Groups
    • PAF Farmers Letter to Governor Wolf
  • Concerned?
    • Krendale Neighbors
    • Emergency Contacts for Gasfield Residents
    • File a Complaint or Report an Incident
    • Property Values
    • Before You Sign a Lease
    • Water Testing
  • Fracking Impacts
    • Toxic Chemicals
    • Human Health Impacts
    • First Person Experiences
    • The Impact of Act 13 (HB 1950)
  • Resources
    • MOB Generated Info >
      • Butler Water Supply at Risk
      • Bat Signal
      • Spill Baby Spill
    • Books >
      • Fracking
      • Climate Change
    • Films
    • Websites
  • Membership & Giving
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Blog

A History of Dishonesty

6/2/2013

0 Comments

 
In his Butler Eagle, May 29 editorial, JLW III expressed great hope that scientists at General Electric (GE) will improve the resource extraction method known as fracking and make it safe.

Let me get this straight.
When people first started expressing concerns about fracking, the gas industry told them that they were “alarmists,” that fracking had been used for over 60 years and was “perfectly safe.”


Then came the slick TV ads saying that the gas industry was going to “get it right” regarding hydraulic fracturing for shale gas extraction.   Oh?   I thought they said it was “right” to begin with.  What happened?

A couple months ago the “sustainable shale” initiative was launched in Pittsburgh by a handful of drilling companies and a handful of environmental groups with the goal of “getting it right.”   (Oh?)   They came up with a series of non-binding “performance standards” which actually differ very little from state and federal environmental laws which the industry ignores much too often.   (To wit, MarkWest, whose natural gas operations in Butler County violated federal clean air laws for two years while the company disputed EPA citations in court.)

Now the latest savior of the shale gas industry (which was perfectly fine and safe to begin with, you may recall) is on the scene: GE.  GE is going to make fracking “all better.”   Oh, how I long to believe!  But what “problems” will GE be willing to acknowledge, and which problems will continue to be ignored, as they were before the industry decided it had to “get it right”?

If anti-fracking activists and investigative journalists hadn't been continually bringing the problems with fracking into the light, GE would not have its glorious mission to embark upon.  Only when these problems become too well-known and uncomfortable to be ignored, often at great human cost, does the industry begin to address them.

I hope that GE will begin its illustrious crusade to “make fracking safe” by acknowledging all those who have been harmed by it when it was “not safe” (i.e., from the beginning of its use in unconventional shale plays to the present).  It would be to the gas industry's credit to make such an acknowledgment as well.

In his editorial, JLW III mentioned the massive BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico as an example of the inevitability of “risk” involved in energy extraction.   He neglected to mention the massive amount of deception that accompanied this accident, regarding the extent of the damage and who was to blame.   Perhaps corporate dishonesty is an inevitable part of the equation as well.

The lack of honesty by the gas industry regarding the problems of fracking for shale gas extraction was the main reason for my becoming a “fracktivist.”  With all the lies, from “it's perfectly safe” to “we're getting it right” and so on, why should I now believe that GE will suddenly “make it all better”?   And how much destruction and damage to health and property will continue to happen while GE scientists endeavor to “get it right”?

I hope that GE will “aim high” and attempt to persuade fracking's harshest critics in the scientific community that it has indeed made fracking a safe and benign process.   I hope that GE will dedicate its efforts publicly to the many who have been harmed by this toxic industrial process before it was thus “perfected.”   Anything less will be, or at least will appear to be, just one multi-billion dollar conglomerate scratching the back of another for profit.

And haven't we had enough of that?

j.p.m.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Authors

    Blog posts written by members of Marcellus Outreach Butler.

    Archives

    April 2017
    February 2017
    September 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    May 2011

    Categories

    All
    13
    Act
    Act 13
    Action
    Activism
    Air Pollution
    Alternative Energy
    Aquifer
    Banking
    Birth Defects
    Butler Township
    Cement Casings
    Chainsaw
    Challenge
    Chemicals Used
    Children
    Children's Health
    Civil Disobedience
    Civil Rights
    Clean Air Act
    Clean Air Council
    Clean Energy
    Clean Water Act
    Climate Change
    Commomwealth Court
    Concerned Health Professionals Of New York
    Constitution
    Constitution Pipeline
    Contaminated Water
    County Commissioners
    Court
    Cutting Trees For Pipelines
    Deception
    Definition
    Delaware Riverkeeper Network
    Dep
    Doctor
    Drilling Ban
    EMA
    Emergency Management
    Eminent Domain
    Energy Revolution
    Environment
    Environmental Impacts
    Environmental Regulations
    Evacuation
    Farmers
    Farmers Against Fracking
    Farms
    Farm Show
    Flaring
    Flowback
    Forest Stewardship Program
    Fracking
    Franklin Township
    Gas Industry Lies
    Gas Lease
    Gerhart
    Geyer Wellpad
    Governor Tom Wolf
    Grandparents
    Groundwater Contamination Cases
    Halliburtan Loophole
    Health
    Health & Safety
    Health Study
    Holleran
    Holleran-Zeffer
    Hormone-disrupting
    House Bill 1950
    Impact Fees
    Jackson Township
    James Cromwell
    Lake Arthur
    Law
    Law Suit
    Lawyer
    Legislation
    Long Term Effects
    Long-term Effects
    Maggie Henry
    Maple Farm
    Maple Sugaring
    Margaret Flower
    Mars Parent Group
    Mars School Board
    Mars Schools
    M.D.
    Middlesex Planning Commission
    Middlesex Township
    Moraine State Park
    Mortgage
    Municipal Water
    Nonviolent Direct Action
    Pa Constitution
    Pediatrician
    Pennsylvanians Against Fracking
    Pipeline
    Property Value
    Proposed Processing Plant
    Protest
    Radiation
    Rally
    Real Estate
    Renewable Energy
    Rep. Brian Ellis
    Residential Drilling
    Resist
    Rex Energy
    Rights Of The People
    Sacrifice Zone
    Safety
    School
    Seneca Valley School
    Sen. White
    Solar
    Stephen Cleghorn
    Stop The Frack Attack
    Supreme Court Ruling
    Sustainable
    Tar Sands
    Tourism
    Unconventional
    Vehicle Acidents
    Violations
    Water
    Water Testing
    Well Casings
    Well Integrity
    Wendell Berry
    Woodlands
    XTO
    Zoning

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.