Sherry Allen – 7/9/10

This page was last updated on July 9, 2010.

Natural gas drilling impacts our water; Sherry Allen; Beaver County Times; July 9, 2010.

Ms. Allen wrote three previous letters I didn’t critique. One (“Conserving water for future,” 1/13/08) asked us to conserve water (primarily by not eating meat) and another (“Say ‘no’ to push polling,” 2/10/08) complained about alleged telephone “push polls” by Republicans, and the third was (“Plant a garden to offset oil usage,” 8/1/08). In one letter I did critique, Ms. Allen gushed about a book she found “that has hundreds of ideas on how to save our planet.” In a partisan letter, Ms. Allen concluded with “Let’s endeavor to walk together peacefully.” In one letter, Ms. Allen related a story of disaffected Republicans voting for Mr. Obama. In another letter, Ms. Allen tried to compare abortion and war in an effort to promote Barack Obama over John McCain. Other letters from Ms. Allen were entitled “Let’s be proactive on the environment,” “Arena a valuable community asset,” “Time to get behind health-care reform,” “A state budget we can all live with,” “Keep pushing for a public option,” “Election ruling terrible for nation,” “Practicing small acts of kindness,” “It’s how we act after events that matters,” “Use freedom of speech wisely,” and “Let’s reduce our carbon footprints.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Pennsylvania’s air, water and health safety are under attack by the Marcellus Shale gas drillers.”

[RWC] If you’re familiar with Ms. Allen’s letter-writing body of work, this letter didn’t come as a surprise. If it’s a leftist position, Ms. Allen supports it.

“Fresh water is the new oil of our generation, and water purity and scarcity is a global concern. The United Nations declared this decade as ‘Water for Life.’

“Pennsylvania is blessed with a lot of water. But the fracturing process that the gas drillers are using involves numerous undisclosed chemicals that are polluting water and air.

“The complications of fracturing could cause many unknown hazards and uses millions of gallons of water. Where is the polluted water hauled? Philadelphia’s water supply is at risk, and many are concerned about damage to their water table. This is a state emergency.”

[RWC] As I’ve written previously, companies harvesting our natural resources must do so in a responsible manner and must have the financial and technological wherewithal to handle worst-case scenarios. It is government’s responsibility to enforce these rules and to make sure everyone involved [businesses and government (local, state, federal)] is prepared (via drills, for example) to execute disaster plans. As I discuss at the end, however, that’s not what this letter is really about.

“Dealing with this war zone nightmare may be our most important contribution. Our failure to solve this will affect our nation’s security because other states are next.

“I’ve learned hope without action is just a wish. Information is only valuable if we comprehend and apply it.

“Let’s convince our untrustworthy Legislature to support the FRAC Act and impose a six-month moratorium on new gas drilling like New York did.

“Ben Franklin said, ‘When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water.’”

[RWC] If you believe the position this letter espouses is based on a genuine concern for our water supply, I have a bridge to sell you. It’s a red herring and all about the religion of manmade global warming. Let’s say recovering natural gas (NG) required only that we capture NG as it escaped naturally existing openings in the Earth. Does anyone doubt we’d get a letter from Ms. Allen telling us we should plug the holes because burning NG generates the so-called greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and water vapor? If that didn’t work, I’d almost be willing to bet we’d get a claim that consuming the NG would result in the Earth’s crust collapsing like a deflated balloon. Yeah, that last one was a bit over the top, but I’ve learned never to underestimate the absurdity to which lefties will sink to sell a position.