BCT Editorial – 7/27/10

8/17/10 - As noted below in the original critique, the editorial misrepresented the accident.  The investigation now appears complete.  According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, “A leaking oil tank at an Indiana Township natural gas well was not fully drained before two welders came to repair it, likely causing the explosion that killed both men, Allegheny County officials said yesterday.”  I won’t hold my breath waiting for the Times to issue a correction.

The editorial says, “Friday’s explosion at an oil well in Indiana Township, which took the lives of two workers, reinforced the effort to impose more stringent regulations on oil and gas prospectors in Pennsylvania.”  Clearly the Times wants us to believe the explosion occurred during prospecting.

In fact, the gas well that caught fire was a producing well drilled back in 2008 and the explosion was caused by welders repairing a nearby oil tank and the editorial authors knew it.  According to a story on the Times website four days before this editorial, “An oil storage tank at a natural gas well exploded Friday morning, killing two workers, leaving a third man remarkably uninjured and sparking a smoky well fire that smoldered for hours.”

So why would a Times editorial misrepresent the accident?  The Times is a believer in the religion of manmade global warming and - though it won’t admit it in so many words - opposes exploration for and production of natural gas in the Marcellus shale formation.  As a reminder, in “Digging deep (9/14/08),” the Times appeared to support producing Marcellus gas.  In my critique of “Digging deep,” I noted the Times position appeared to be inconsistent with previous editorials with respect to “carbon-based fuels.”  I wrote, “Perhaps the Times will recognize the inconsistency and publish an editorial opposing drilling for the natural gas unless all the carbon can be extracted and sequestered underground.”  It took two months, but I was right, and wrong.  The Times reversed its support of drilling for natural gas, but came up with a different reason than I predicted.