And, the gas-drilling companies fail to mention that when they go back to Texas, having taken all the gas they can liberate from the Marcellus Shale under our homes, we’ll be left with damaged roads, poisoned wells, continuing air and water pollution, unusable farmland and homes that have lost so much of their value that we won’t be able to sell them, even if banks hadn’t stopped lending mortgage money to potential buyers in fracking areas.
Big Gas now acknowledges that an analogy between fracking here in Pennsylvania and military occupation of Mideast countries isn’t farfetched at all. That’s why they’ve been hiring consultants trained by the military in “counterinsurgency” techniques developed by occupying military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
People who object to an occupation that clearly does more long-term damage than long-term good are branded “insurgents,” and massive, expensive PR campaigns like the ones we’re seeing from Big Gas are launched in the media to try to convince gullible, poorly informed citizens that those insurgents — not the occupiers — are the real danger.
Do you live in an area that’s at risk because of fracking? Would you worry if your water and air were poisoned, your family’s health devastated and the value of your home cut by 80 percent?
Does it bother you that state legislators — their pockets lined with Big-Gas contributions — are trying to strip you and your community of the ability to enact local ordinances to protect yourselves from predatory corporations, and are trying to transfer your constitutionally guaranteed community rights to those corporations?
Be careful. That might make you an insurgent.
R.J.