That’s what the woman sitting in the center of the room said on Friday night at the Lehigh Valley Tea Party meeting in Palmer Township. She’s the one who also said she’d welcome drilling in the Lehigh Valley. A man closer to the front mentioned both The Sky is Pink and Josh Fox by name and reported that the movie said that increased breast cancer rates in Texas were being blamed on drilling. The crowd laughed.
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I went to the meeting for two reasons. I wanted to hear what the guest speaker, Jennifer Huha, the Regional Operations Manager for GES, had to say about Marcellus Shale and I wanted to hear how the crowd reacted. GES, by the way, stands for Groundwater and Environmental Sevices, an environmental consulting firm that recently formed a strategic partnership with the Ridge (yes, Tom Ridge) Policy Group.
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Ms. Huha’s pleasant demeanor and even tone made her the perfect representative to downplay the dangers of drilling. When it was helpful, she claimed to not know about things. When asked about accidents, she spoke about the two she had personally witnessed. She claims to have never seen Gasland, and stuck to her script when she said she prefers to listen to what the science says. A fellow fractivist who also attended pointed out that she never once used the word ‘chemical’.
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The Powerpoint presentation Ms. Huha used came straight from the industry cheerleading group, the Marcellus Shale Coalition. I’m not assuming that. Every slide bore their logo. Toward the end, slide after slide contained lists of drilling-related regulations, something surprisingly comforting to the small government types.
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I heard several good questions from the crowd and held out hope that there may be ways to work together. After all, in my world, 200 people from two counties showing up at an inconvenient location on a Friday evening in the summer is unheard of. My hopes were dashed when someone brought up Act 13 and wanted to know what had happened in the courts. Ms. Huha claimed to be unfamiliar with any court action. A man in front said that Easton was passing something opposing drilling. (He may have been thinking of Bethlehem’s letter opposing Act 13. I don’t believe Easton has passed a resolution yet.) He didn’t like a place with no drilling butting in with an opinion and said, “We need to get active on this.” That’s when I raised my hand.
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I very quickly explained Act 13 and the Commonwealth Court decision and pointed out that it pertains to all gas drilling operations, including things like pipelines that could be headed their way. I saw many people listening and nodding, so there may still be hope. We’ll see.
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For now, however, remember that well-organized groups like the Lehigh Valley Tea Party are just the tip of the iceberg of what we’re up against. There are legions of Jennifer Huhas out there putting a happy and safe face on drilling to crowds of people who are very receptive to that message.
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Please join us on Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. for our August Berks Gas Truth meeting at 361 East Main Street in Kutztown where we’ll discuss Act 13, Farm Aid, Shale Gas Outrage, Don’t Frack NY, and a lot of other important topics!