Randy Shaffer – 9/12/13

This page was last updated on September 12, 2013.

Move away from the oil and gas mentality; Randy Shaffer; Beaver County Times; September 12, 2013.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“I believe the time has come for us to acknowledge the efforts of The Beaver County Times as the official spokesperson for the local fracking industry. Perhaps they are using as their model to inform the public of the extraordinary opportunities of slave trade, or the virtues of eradicating entire populations of native peoples in the name of progress and expansion.

“However, in the vein of public information, why not include a few words about the demonstrated effects of the hydraulic fracturing process, such as high levels of methane gas which will contaminate various water supplies, or high levels of lethal radioactive water that is forced to the surface during fracking, or the many accidents that have occurred in an effort to contain these contaminated waters? Also, let’s not forget about recent studies that have linked the fracking process to earthquakes.

“Perhaps the time has come for The Times to inform us that no amount of progress or revenue can be seen to justify these dirty processes and, too, that the time has come for us to focus our political and social energy on more sustainable forms of energy that allow us to turn away from the oil and gas mentality.”

[RWC] I don’t know which “Beaver County Times” Mr. Shaffer has been reading, but BCT “news” stories and opinion pieces have been almost exclusively anti-fracking/Marcellus for the last few years. Heck, the parent company of the BCT even has a dedicated anti-fracking website, ShaleReporter.com. In fairness to Mr. Shaffer, however, the BCT did flip-flop on this issue but appears to have settled on Marcellus gas/fracking is bad. During that time it appeared the BCT was willing to “hold its nose” regarding Marcellus gas production as long as it resulted in more taxes to increase government spending.

Here are only a few examples of the BCT’s fracking pieces:

Scientific study links flammable drinking water to fracking; July 11, 2012

Gasbagland: Infomercial insults audience’s intelligence; July 29, 2013

Questions abound on Seitel seismic testing; February 19, 2013