This page was last updated on October 27, 2017.
Shell meeting offered nothing to community; Terrie Baumgardner (TB) - Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community; Beaver County Times; October 19, 2017.
TB used to be an “instructor in communications, arts and sciences at Penn State Beaver.”
Previous TB letters are here, “Shell repeatedly failed to be a ‘good neighbor,’” and “Gas-drilling boom mocks promised prosperity.”
The “Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Committee” (BCMAC) has something like an “interlocking directorate” relationship with “Progressive Democrats of America – PA 12th Congressional District Chapter” (BCR). Though TB referred to BCMA “Community,” the official name appears to remain BCMA “Committee.” When did “community” become a thing?
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“On Oct. 5 in Aliquippa, Shell held its third community meeting that was not a community meeting. Only some Aliquippa residents received invitations.”
[RWC] I don’t know about the Aliquippa meeting, but that wasn’t the case for the June 20th meeting held at the Center Township VFD #1 hall. The meeting notices were mass-mailed (I don’t know the mailing area.) and the fire hall was pretty much filled to capacity. I attended that meeting and my big take-away was how much effort Shell is expending trying to make critics like them. It’s SOP and there’s nothing insincere or wrong with it. The only “problem” is it doesn’t work.
Short of Shell packing up and leaving town, nothing will make the plant acceptable to these groups. That’s because the hubbub about the Shell plant is all about the religion of manmade global warming and the left’s desire to ban natural gas production regardless of its source. Shale opposition groups couldn’t stop fracking directly (except in NY), so now they’re trying to block processing plants and pipelines.
As I advise for all sources, including me, be sure to factcheck TB’s claims, even the tiniest.
“Shell announced that it did not encourage the media to attend, no one attending was allowed to take photos or videos or record audio, and before anyone could question the why of these policies, Shell directed people to hold all questions until the event’s end and take them instead to tables in the lobby for one-on-one answers from designated ‘experts.’
“Sensing the silencing of public discourse, one woman raised a hand. ‘With all due respect,’ she asked, ‘how can this be a ‘community meeting’ when—’ That’s all she got to say before being shut down by the speaker.”
[RWC] These rules were the same for the Center meeting. The purpose is not to “silence public discourse.” The purpose is to prevent activists from hijacking the meeting and turning it into a shouting match.
“The woman beside me said she had come to learn about the health impacts of the plant, but they were never mentioned. After the program, one table ‘expert’ could not answer my questions on safety and did not know the cracker will be allowed to emit 159 tons per year of fine particulate matter that has been linked to asthma, decreased lung function, and premature death for people with heart or lung disease.
“When I asked another expert who questioned whether I knew the difference between emissions and ‘potential to emit’ for an example of a petro plant where those numbers differ, he could not name one. At the last table, I waited in line more than 15 minutes until the tables closed and the expert walked out.”
[RWC] My experience with these guys is their unnamed “experts” don’t exist. Who defined TB’s “experts” as experts, Shell or TB?
In any case, being an expert doesn’t make a person omniscient. I don’t know if it’s the case here, but a common tactic is to pepper an “expert” with questions until there’s one the expert can’t answer. At that point, the questioner then bashes the organization for not providing knowledgeable “experts” to answer questions. Was that the purpose of TB’s “two pages of unanswered questions?”
“At a real community meeting, all residents would be invited to hear each other’s questions and to weigh and discuss propaganda-free answers. Oct. 5 was, instead, a one-way corporate sell that left me with two pages of unanswered questions.”
[RWC] TB wants “propaganda-free” answers? You have to appreciate TB’s chutzpah.
If after at least two years TB still has “two pages of unanswered questions,” she’s not doing a very good job.
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