Newsletter - February 2018 - Full Edition
Economic Violence
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Recently, I read an excellent essay by Wendell Berry, “Compromise, Hell!” in the collection The Way of Ignorance. In it, Berry argues that there can be no compromise when defending our Earth and our communities from destruction. He calls this destruction “economic violence.” I’ll let Berry speak for himself:
“It is commonly understood that governments are instituted to provide certain protections that citizens individually cannot provide for themselves. But governments have tended to assume that this responsibility can be fulfilled mainly by the police and the military. They have used their regulatory powers reluctantly and often poorly. Our governments have only occasionally recognized the need of land and people to be protected against economic violence. It is true that economic violence is not always as swift, and is rarely as bloody, as the violence of war, but it can be devastating nonetheless. Acts of economic aggression can destroy a landscape or a community or the center of a town or city, and they routinely do so.
Such damage is justified by its corporate perpetrators and their political abettors in the name of the ‘free market’ and ‘free enterprise,’ but this is a freedom that makes greed the dominant economic virtue, and it destroys the freedom of other people along with their communities and livelihoods. There are such things as economic weapons of massive destruction. We have allowed them to be used against us, not just by public submission and regulatory malfeasance, but also by public subsidies, incentives, and sufferances impossible to justify.
We have failed to acknowledge this threat and to act in our own defense. As a result, our once-beautiful and bountiful countryside has long been a colony of the coal, timber, and agribusiness corporations, yielding an immense wealth of energy and raw materials at an immense cost to our land and our land’s people.”*
There is a long history of economic violence in Butler County. From the very first clearing of the ancient forests 250 years ago, to the Evans City and Petroleum Valley oil booms, to the coal mines of the late-1800s and early-1900s, Butler County has been a victim of economic violence since its founding, and we’re still dealing with the impacts of that violence today in the form of acid mine drainage, orphaned and abandoned wells, un-reclaimed strip mines, and more.
But while haunted by the legacy of past economic aggression, new varieties of violence continue today. In the northern half of our county, strip mining for gravel, sand, and coal is still a regular occurrence, with new mines being opened and existing ones constantly expanding, devouring the Earth in their path. In the southernmost townships, as well as Butler and Center townships, economic violence is being waged in the form of the explosive development of strip malls, office parks, hotels, and the dreaded “planned residential development,” mowing down forests, eating up farmland, and driving life-long residents and small businesses who can’t compete with chain stores out. And in all corners of the county, forests are being decimated by irresponsible “selective” cutting that uses heavy machinery and takes far too many trees to be sustainable.
But the issue MOB is concerned with, fracking, is yet another weapon in the arsenal of the economic forces waging war against our land and our communities. Massive multi-national fossil fuel corporations like ExxonMobil, of which local operator XTO Energy is a wholly-owned subsidiary, have invaded the quiet, largely rural character of our county. These companies, thinking rural and economically depressed areas are ripe for the taking, invaded Butler County with their fleet of white trucks with Texas plates, smooth-talking land men, and promises of prosperity. Having convinced an unwitting populace, they have ridden rough-shod over much of Butler County for the better part of 10 years. And for the most part, except for those of you reading this, Butler County has let them.
Wendell Berry would say we have lost our connections to the land and to our communities. Fracking is a violent, toxic process that has no regard whatsoever for the land, the water, the air, and the people. It is violent in the literal sense in that it shatters the Earth far underground and pumps it full of poisonous, carcinogenic, and even radioactive materials that an average person can’t even pronounce, let alone understand what consequences they hold. Fracking destroys the surface of our land also, with well pads scattered like tumors on the Earth, pipelines slicing through forests and crossing streams, frack waste and “freshwater” ponds endangering everything downhill, and processing plants sprawling over hundreds of acres. Our landscape in Butler County has changed profoundly and likely for a long time to come. This change was not gradual and it was not self-imposed. In less than a decade, the techno-industrial machine that has perpetrated acts of economic violence in the past has done so yet again. Fracking, as Berry would say, has become another economic weapon of mass destruction.
But fracking is violent also in the more philosophical sense. It has sharply divided our communities, driven wedges in families, ended friendships, and caused neighbors to turn against each other. This outside force has invaded our communities that once were tight-knit and peaceful and torn them asunder in ways never seen before. Only when one no longer holds any regard for one’s neighbors can they allow a fracking company to drill on their property. Yes, there are property rights, but what about our universal human rights? The rights to clean air, clean water, health and safety in our own homes, all threatened by a force we cannot control thanks to the utter disregard of a neighbor. It is as if the 1700s have returned, when the landed gentry held all the power and small homesteaders were of no significance and were disregarded like cattle. What happened to cause this? Was it the allure of easy money, the empty promises of a return to prosperity, the lies of “energy independence” and a “bridge fuel” to the future? Perhaps we’ll never know what caused our communities to disintegrate, but hopefully one day we can reconcile, because only with a unified sense of purpose can we overcome this threat.
Economic violence has destroyed our land and our communities for far too long. We must band together and mount a unified resistance, or else we’re doomed to destruction. To conclude, I’d like to quote Wendell Berry once again. And so I leave you with this food for thought: “To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.”
- Sam Hoszwa
*Read the rest of the essay here. Quote taken from "Compromise, Hell!" in The Way of Ignorance and Other Essays by Wendell Berry, pg. 24, (Counterpoint, 2005).
“It is commonly understood that governments are instituted to provide certain protections that citizens individually cannot provide for themselves. But governments have tended to assume that this responsibility can be fulfilled mainly by the police and the military. They have used their regulatory powers reluctantly and often poorly. Our governments have only occasionally recognized the need of land and people to be protected against economic violence. It is true that economic violence is not always as swift, and is rarely as bloody, as the violence of war, but it can be devastating nonetheless. Acts of economic aggression can destroy a landscape or a community or the center of a town or city, and they routinely do so.
Such damage is justified by its corporate perpetrators and their political abettors in the name of the ‘free market’ and ‘free enterprise,’ but this is a freedom that makes greed the dominant economic virtue, and it destroys the freedom of other people along with their communities and livelihoods. There are such things as economic weapons of massive destruction. We have allowed them to be used against us, not just by public submission and regulatory malfeasance, but also by public subsidies, incentives, and sufferances impossible to justify.
We have failed to acknowledge this threat and to act in our own defense. As a result, our once-beautiful and bountiful countryside has long been a colony of the coal, timber, and agribusiness corporations, yielding an immense wealth of energy and raw materials at an immense cost to our land and our land’s people.”*
There is a long history of economic violence in Butler County. From the very first clearing of the ancient forests 250 years ago, to the Evans City and Petroleum Valley oil booms, to the coal mines of the late-1800s and early-1900s, Butler County has been a victim of economic violence since its founding, and we’re still dealing with the impacts of that violence today in the form of acid mine drainage, orphaned and abandoned wells, un-reclaimed strip mines, and more.
But while haunted by the legacy of past economic aggression, new varieties of violence continue today. In the northern half of our county, strip mining for gravel, sand, and coal is still a regular occurrence, with new mines being opened and existing ones constantly expanding, devouring the Earth in their path. In the southernmost townships, as well as Butler and Center townships, economic violence is being waged in the form of the explosive development of strip malls, office parks, hotels, and the dreaded “planned residential development,” mowing down forests, eating up farmland, and driving life-long residents and small businesses who can’t compete with chain stores out. And in all corners of the county, forests are being decimated by irresponsible “selective” cutting that uses heavy machinery and takes far too many trees to be sustainable.
But the issue MOB is concerned with, fracking, is yet another weapon in the arsenal of the economic forces waging war against our land and our communities. Massive multi-national fossil fuel corporations like ExxonMobil, of which local operator XTO Energy is a wholly-owned subsidiary, have invaded the quiet, largely rural character of our county. These companies, thinking rural and economically depressed areas are ripe for the taking, invaded Butler County with their fleet of white trucks with Texas plates, smooth-talking land men, and promises of prosperity. Having convinced an unwitting populace, they have ridden rough-shod over much of Butler County for the better part of 10 years. And for the most part, except for those of you reading this, Butler County has let them.
Wendell Berry would say we have lost our connections to the land and to our communities. Fracking is a violent, toxic process that has no regard whatsoever for the land, the water, the air, and the people. It is violent in the literal sense in that it shatters the Earth far underground and pumps it full of poisonous, carcinogenic, and even radioactive materials that an average person can’t even pronounce, let alone understand what consequences they hold. Fracking destroys the surface of our land also, with well pads scattered like tumors on the Earth, pipelines slicing through forests and crossing streams, frack waste and “freshwater” ponds endangering everything downhill, and processing plants sprawling over hundreds of acres. Our landscape in Butler County has changed profoundly and likely for a long time to come. This change was not gradual and it was not self-imposed. In less than a decade, the techno-industrial machine that has perpetrated acts of economic violence in the past has done so yet again. Fracking, as Berry would say, has become another economic weapon of mass destruction.
But fracking is violent also in the more philosophical sense. It has sharply divided our communities, driven wedges in families, ended friendships, and caused neighbors to turn against each other. This outside force has invaded our communities that once were tight-knit and peaceful and torn them asunder in ways never seen before. Only when one no longer holds any regard for one’s neighbors can they allow a fracking company to drill on their property. Yes, there are property rights, but what about our universal human rights? The rights to clean air, clean water, health and safety in our own homes, all threatened by a force we cannot control thanks to the utter disregard of a neighbor. It is as if the 1700s have returned, when the landed gentry held all the power and small homesteaders were of no significance and were disregarded like cattle. What happened to cause this? Was it the allure of easy money, the empty promises of a return to prosperity, the lies of “energy independence” and a “bridge fuel” to the future? Perhaps we’ll never know what caused our communities to disintegrate, but hopefully one day we can reconcile, because only with a unified sense of purpose can we overcome this threat.
Economic violence has destroyed our land and our communities for far too long. We must band together and mount a unified resistance, or else we’re doomed to destruction. To conclude, I’d like to quote Wendell Berry once again. And so I leave you with this food for thought: “To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.”
- Sam Hoszwa
*Read the rest of the essay here. Quote taken from "Compromise, Hell!" in The Way of Ignorance and Other Essays by Wendell Berry, pg. 24, (Counterpoint, 2005).
Around the County
SUMMIT TWP—XTO has begun work on the Prager well pad on Herman Road, just west of the crossroads in Herman. For now, the pad has one well permitted.
JEFFERSON TWP—On January 16, the DEP issued a violation to PennEnergy at its West 55 pad on Neupert Road, just outside Saxonburg. According to the DEP report: “On 1/5/2018, at approximately 8:45 AM, a PennEnergy Resources contract employee from Rockwater Energy Solutions was operating a telehandler to move a 40-foot long 16" diameter … plastic pipe adjacent to the well pad's AST (above-ground storage tank). Impaired water released from AST to well pad following liner puncture.” It was not reported how much “impaired” (read: contaminated) water was released onto the ground. PennEnergy is the same company currently building a pad 1,800 feet from Knoch Middle School (see below).
JEFFERSON TWP—PennEnergy began drilling on the W71 well pad on Dinnerbell Road, 1,800 feet away from Knoch Middle School, on February 7. The well pad has 6 wells.
CONNOQUENESSING TWP—XTO began drilling the Lesney Unit 5H well on the well pad of the same name on Route 422, just east of Mount Chestnut, on January 24. This is the second well on that pad.
JEFFERSON TWP—On January 16, the DEP issued a violation to PennEnergy at its West 55 pad on Neupert Road, just outside Saxonburg. According to the DEP report: “On 1/5/2018, at approximately 8:45 AM, a PennEnergy Resources contract employee from Rockwater Energy Solutions was operating a telehandler to move a 40-foot long 16" diameter … plastic pipe adjacent to the well pad's AST (above-ground storage tank). Impaired water released from AST to well pad following liner puncture.” It was not reported how much “impaired” (read: contaminated) water was released onto the ground. PennEnergy is the same company currently building a pad 1,800 feet from Knoch Middle School (see below).
JEFFERSON TWP—PennEnergy began drilling on the W71 well pad on Dinnerbell Road, 1,800 feet away from Knoch Middle School, on February 7. The well pad has 6 wells.
CONNOQUENESSING TWP—XTO began drilling the Lesney Unit 5H well on the well pad of the same name on Route 422, just east of Mount Chestnut, on January 24. This is the second well on that pad.
Across Penn's Woods
FOX CHAPEL—Range Resources has begun construction on the first well pad in the affluent Pittsburgh suburb. Located on Cove Run Road in Indiana Township, the pad is only hundreds of feet away from Emmerling Park and Deer Creek, and about two miles away from Dorseyville Middle School and Hartwood Elementary School. Concerned residents have organized a public meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, February 27 at 6:30 PM at the Indiana Township Municipal Building. Dr. Patricia DeMarco and Dr. John Stolz will be among the speakers at the program. If you are interested in attending, find more information and RSVP here.
BEAVER—The DEP has extended the public comment period for Shell’s proposed Falcon pipeline. The comment period for the pipeline, which will connect facilities in Cadiz and Scio, Ohio and Houston, Pennsylvania to the Shell cracker plant currently under construction near Beaver, has been extended to April 17. The DEP will also hold three public hearings, one each in Allegheny, Beaver, and Washington counties, with dates and locations yet to be announced. Butler County residents are urged to make comments against the pipeline, as the cracker plant will destroy air quality in the entire region, and also cause an explosion of fracking in Butler County to produce ethane to feed the plant. Of course, Pennsylvania is giving Shell a $1.65 billion tax break over 25 years to build the plant. Read more here and view the permit applications and learn how to comment here.
HARRISBURG—Despite being ordered by the DEP to stop work on the Mariner East 2 pipeline, Sunoco claims the pipeline will be active by the end of June. Earlier this year, the DEP ordered Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company behind the pipeline, to stop work after repeated environmental violations. However, work was allowed to resume after Sunoco signed a 34-page consent agreement on February 8, promising to fix the problem areas. Meanwhile, Commonwealth Court ruled that Sunoco’s public utility status trumped local law when four residents of West Goshen Township, Chester County challenged Sunoco’s planned route through their township, arguing that it violated the township’s zoning ordinance by placing the pipeline too close to homes. Sunoco’s status as a public utility has been a major point of contention on the project, as public utility status allows an entity to use eminent domain. Read more here and here.
BEAVER—The DEP has extended the public comment period for Shell’s proposed Falcon pipeline. The comment period for the pipeline, which will connect facilities in Cadiz and Scio, Ohio and Houston, Pennsylvania to the Shell cracker plant currently under construction near Beaver, has been extended to April 17. The DEP will also hold three public hearings, one each in Allegheny, Beaver, and Washington counties, with dates and locations yet to be announced. Butler County residents are urged to make comments against the pipeline, as the cracker plant will destroy air quality in the entire region, and also cause an explosion of fracking in Butler County to produce ethane to feed the plant. Of course, Pennsylvania is giving Shell a $1.65 billion tax break over 25 years to build the plant. Read more here and view the permit applications and learn how to comment here.
HARRISBURG—Despite being ordered by the DEP to stop work on the Mariner East 2 pipeline, Sunoco claims the pipeline will be active by the end of June. Earlier this year, the DEP ordered Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company behind the pipeline, to stop work after repeated environmental violations. However, work was allowed to resume after Sunoco signed a 34-page consent agreement on February 8, promising to fix the problem areas. Meanwhile, Commonwealth Court ruled that Sunoco’s public utility status trumped local law when four residents of West Goshen Township, Chester County challenged Sunoco’s planned route through their township, arguing that it violated the township’s zoning ordinance by placing the pipeline too close to homes. Sunoco’s status as a public utility has been a major point of contention on the project, as public utility status allows an entity to use eminent domain. Read more here and here.
