Berks Gas Truth is a little over a year old, so Thanksgiving seems like an appropriate time to celebrate our first birthday by thanking all of you for your hard work, your interest, your passion, and dszcsddsvenergy. Thanks to all of your efforts and the efforts of fellow fractivists throughout the state and in New York, New Jersey, and Delaware, we saw that no amount of money was able to speak louder than people speaking the truth when Governor Markell changed his yes vote to a no vote, causing the DRBC to cancel its meeting. Over 800 people made their way to Trenton on Monday to celebrate an accomplishment so many told us was out of our reach.
We’ve won a battle, but are far from winning the war. We need to redouble our efforts in these last weeks of 2011 as the PA state legislature tries to pass power-grabbing impact fee legislation, as the DEP stops providing clean water to the residents of Dimock, as they also consider permitting the use of briny fracking waste as a road cleaner and de-icer, as the EPA considers air quality standards that don’t go far enough, and as someone somewhere is being handed his complimentary “Team Chesapeake” windbreaker from some glad-handing advance man and has no idea what he’s in for.
In Berks Gas Truth’s first year:
■we’ve protested Corbett’s appearance at Albright’s graduation (and made the Washington Post in the process!),
■we’ve participated in the St. Barnabas Public Forum organized by Chuck Brown,
■we’ve done screenings, talks and tabling at festivals, events, and street fairs including the Philly Folk Festival, Reading Earth Day, the PA Energy Fest, the End of Summer Concert Series at the Reading Bandshell, the Mt. Penn Block Party, Reading’s Poetry Fest, Lehigh Valley Green Drinks, the Boyertown Sidewalk Expo, the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Association’s TEK Park meeting, the Kutztown Area Democratic Club, the Independent Space in Kutztown, the Noble School, the Antietam Primary Center, the Steel Jam Festival in Bethlehem, Kutztown University, and Brandywine Area High School,
■we’ve done over 25 letters to the editor, op-eds, and tv, radio, and newspaper interviews,
■we’ve worked as organizers and participants in Shale Gas Outrage, Lobby Day, the November 21st Rally in Trenton. Julie Edgar alone has represented us well at countless rallies and protests. Patti Rose has taken our message to Occupy Reading. We’ve spoken up at town halls, like Representative Simmons’ town hall in Southern Lehigh where Michael Shaw shook things up, and public forums, like those at Albright College and the League of Women Voters forum at RACC,
■we’ve partnered with other organizations to form coalitions
■we’ve contacted local officials and water authorities to tell them about the impact fee bills and the proposed DRBC regulations,
■we’ve spread the word online via our website, Facebook, Twitter, and our monthly newsletter,
■we’ve spread the word via our Don’t Frack Your Mother shirts designed by Bill Bispels and his kids, created by Michelle Sayles, and produced by Patti Rose and the good people at Weikel Sportswear,
■we’ve spread the word via our No Gas Drilling on PA buttons that were Patti Rose’s brainchild,
■we’ve spread the word via Commonsense 2 brought our of hiatus by Chuck Brown just to put a spotlight on fracking, by the cartoons provided by Michelle Sayles and Nadia Perfect-Rinzyk, and by all of you who have shared responses from elected officials for the monthly Frackchecker column,
■we’ve spread the word via this mailing list that has hit 350 and keeps growing,
■we’ve even spread the word overseas thanks to our work with French journalist, Xavier Frison and an interview on Voice of Russia Radio.
And those are just the highlights!
We have lots more work ahead! Take a well-deserved break this Thanksgiving and get ready for an even bigger and busier 2012. Look out, Corbett! Berks Gas Truth has hit its Terrible Twos now!
(If you get BCTV, check out Alternative News and Different Views this Monday at 8 p.m. John Hoskyns-Abrahall and yours truly will be the guests. John will be talking about international environmental issues. Guess what I’ll be talking about!)
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! Have a GREAT Thanksgiving!
Karen