NoCana

The new Don King

I was on television last night.  I was an audience participant on WVIA’s State of Pennsylvania live broadcast.  I asked a question on camera.  This was not easy for me.  I don’t like the limelight.  Last night’s show was hosted by Suzanne Kapral-Kelly.  Her guests were WILK talk show hosts Nancy Kman, John Webster, Sue Henry, and Steve Corbett.

When it was almost my turn, I was ushered to a spot marked by masking tape, directly in the line of fire.  Then before I could run away, all lights and attention swung to me.  I think I did okay.  It was my first time on the tube.   I kept it simple.  I thanked the WILK radio hosts for providing a platform to discuss the Marcellus Shale issue.  Then, I simply requested that both stations sponsor a debate between EnCana and the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition.  The dreaded GDAC.

I did this without consulting anyone else from GDAC. But I am sure each one would say, “Bring it on”! This gas play is so wrong in so many ways for our communities.

I remember the first and only time I heard representatives from EnCana speak.  They were making a presentation to the Back Mountain Community Partnership.  The Partnership is a group of  local township and state representatives.  EnCana  presented hydraulic fracturing as a benign and safe process.  You have seen the Chesapeake ads.  Makes it look like a park.  During the question period, there were some of us who began to ask reasonable questions about safety and environmental impact.  They became visibly defensive and dismissive.  The EnCana reps could not or would not provide answers to most of our questions and were then asked by the Partnership to report back in writing.  They did eventually submit an inadequate response in writing.  But that is a whole other story for a future date.  The point here is they don’t like questions.  They seem to expect us to be compliant and quiet. Watch the movie Split Estate to get a glimpse of EnCana’s dark side.

On the broadcast, Steve Corbett related how he has been unable to get anyone from EnCana to talk with him. They are about to change our world in a very surreal, industrial, and irreversible way – yet are too arrogant to address any of these potentialities with the public.

Even if you had the perfect company doing all the right things, fracking is still a dirty, radioactive, water wasting, toxin injecting, air polluting, community disrupting, waste producing, land damaging, infrastructure intensive, property devaluing, inefficient way to produce energy. Add on top of that a secretive and entitled corporation – you are begging for trouble.

Come on down EnCana! Name the time and place.