Sherry Allen – 12/11/11

This page was last updated on December 11, 2011.

Living in a war zone; Sherry Allen; Beaver County Times; December 11, 2011.

Since January 2008, the Times has published at least 32 letters from Ms. Allen. Letters I critiqued are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Of letters I didn’t critique, one (“Conserving water for future,” 1/13/08) asked us to conserve water (primarily by not eating meat), 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 “Just appreciate the here and now,” “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,” “Let’s reduce our carbon footprints,” “Natural gas drilling impacts our water,” and “Don’t take shortcuts on drilling for gas.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Recently, it feels like we’re living in a war zone with all the big trucks driving in Brighton Township. The trucks on Tuscarawas are heading for a natural gas drilling site in the state game lands above Midland.”

[RWC] This is at least the second letter on this topic in which Ms. Allen wrote of a “war zone.”

“Last month, I appealed to the Department of Environmental Protection to have a hearing to voice our concerns about the pending approval of a drilling permit a half mile from a development of young families in Dawson Ridge.

“My concern is for the communities’s [sic] health being harmed from endocrine disruptors and carcinogens released into the air from drilling.”

[RWC] Sure. This letter is a red herring and is about the religion of manmade global warming. Knowing the manmade global warming myth is increasingly falling on deaf ears, followers of this faith now try to use safety, water quality, etc. as backdoors to stop drilling and production of Marcellus natural gas. You can find other examples here and here.

“The DEP never responded. Because of budget cuts, they typically spent only 30 minutes deciding our fate. If drilling could be done safely, and we had enough regulators to monitor and police this industry, and drillers repaired roads, I’d be more agreeable.”

[RWC] Once again, sure. Previous Allen letters on drilling were entitled “People must unite to counter drilling,” “Don’t take shortcuts on drilling for gas,” and “Natural gas drilling impacts our water.” Together with her letters directly about the religion of manmade global warming, what has Ms. Allen written on these topics that would lead anyone to believe she would “be more agreeable” about producing gas under any circumstances? As I wrote in a previous critique, “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.”