This page was last updated on April 10, 2011.
There are two sides to the drilling story; Bob Schmetzer; Beaver County Times; April 10, 2011.
I critiqued 12 previous Schmetzer letters and they are usually broken records. A 2004 letter asserted Republicans were “driving Americans into the ground.” That letter claimed the GOP planned “to reflect their commitment to defend our homeland by reintroducing the draft in 2005” despite the fact Democrats were the only guys talking about reinstating the draft. Other letters resurrected the Cheney/Halliburton talking point, lobbied for VP Cheney’s impeachment, lobbied for surrender in Iraq, and blamed President Bush for a mine cave-in. Breaking the trend were letters lobbying for a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare system and another expressing panic at offshoring. One letter was nearly word-for-word plagiarism. More recent letters were entitled “Act on drilling before it’s too late,” “Health plan would level playing field,” and “The time to protect our water is now.” In his last letter, Mr. Schmetzer tried to refute a letter to the editor I wrote.
The BC Democrats website used to list Robert Schmetzer as the local town chair for South Heights, but that page no longer exists as of this writing. Mr. Schmetzer is also “vice-president of PA 4th CD Chapter of Progressive Democrats of America.” The PDA-PA4 website is Beaver County Reds. Why doesn’t the Times mention these associations in an editor’s note when it publishes Mr. Schmetzer’s letters?
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“While Beaver County residents were asleep, drillers were working.”
[RWC] This is at least the third letter from Mr. Schmetzer on this topic since August 2010. Previous letters are here and here. In addition, at least three other letters (here, here, and here) were written by Mr. Schmetzer’s fellow members of Beaver County Reds.
“There have been 20 to 40 title searchers at the recorder of deeds daily checking for mineral rights. Presently, there have been more than 900 leases signed.”
[RWC] The figures cited probably don’t matter, but verify them with an authoritative source if they are important to you.
“Most residents signed after only talking to neighbors or friends. Most never had an attorney who is knowledgeable or a base line water test on the well system taken to prove they have good water.
“The coin has two sides. We only hear about the money and prosperity it will bring. Our neighbors in Greene and Washington counties have a different opinion after the drilling started.”
[RWC] “We only hear about the money and prosperity it will bring?” Where does Mr. Schmetzer get his news?
“They have told me about the constant compressor noise, truck traffic 7-24, loss of drinking water to the home, gas venting that makes their children’s noses bleed when playing in the yard, etc.
“Our elected officials and media have been silent. Why?”
[RWC] “Silent?” Again, where does Mr. Schmetzer get his news?
“The state has boxed in local governments. With the state gas and oil laws and zoning that is allowed in Pennsylvania, local leaders are told they have an obligation to protect the community from harm but let the drillers have their way. You can’t have it both ways.”
[RWC] Keep in mind the left opposes so-called “carbon-based energy” of any kind as well as nuclear power and instead wants us to chase so-called “green energy,” “renewables,” et cetera. As I’ve noted before, you can identify “green energy” sources because they are not currently technically and/or economically viable enough to provide large amounts of energy. As soon as a “green energy” source gets close to commercial viability, it’s no longer deemed “green.” We’ve seen this with some hydro, wind, and solar projects. Knowing the manmade global warming myth increasingly falls on deaf ears, followers of this faith try to use safety, water quality, etc. as backdoors to stop drilling and production of Marcellus natural gas. You can find examples here, here, here, here, and here. Two of those letters were written by Mr. Schmetzer and at least two of the other three were written by fellow members of Beaver County Reds.
Note the suggestion by one of Mr. Schmetzer’s fellow BCR members “to put a hefty extraction tax on natural gas taken from the Marcellus shale,” not appropriate, fair, reasonable, etc., but “hefty.” The goal is to make Marcellus gas too expensive to produce via regulations and taxes, similar to the cap-and-tax plan President Obama wants for both natural gas and coal-fired power plants. The idea is to take out competitors of so-called “green energy” by making them prohibitively expensive. If that’s unsuccessful, the thinking goes, at least there would be a lot more revenue for government to spend. That same person also told us the work “has to be done onsite by local union workers.” That condition has two goals. The first is the same as for the tax, help make Marcellus gas too expensive to produce. The second goal is about funding to advance leftist policies/programs/politicians and a big chunk of leftist funding comes from mandatory dues collected from employees forced to join labor unions by closed-shop labor laws. There’s also the labor union member manpower used for in-kind contributions (knocking on doors, manning phone banks, generating and distributing collateral, rallies, etc.) to support leftist policies/programs/politicians.
© 2004-2011 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.