Marcellus Message: From the Flag to the Cross

       

I took a day away from posting, thanks to PA's former Governor and current Marcellus Shale Coalition spokesperson, Tom Ridge. I needed that time to cool down and ensure I didn't post anything I would regret.

On Monday, I was doing my normal online scan of Marcellus-related articles when I found this quote attributed to Mr. Ridge:

"The Lord gave us these resources," he said.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Here's one of the comments left in response:

"The Lord gave us these resources," Are you serious? He actually said this? This guy is worse than I thought. And yet another positive article for the industry. Come on Sun, what about the companies wanting to ship this stuff overseas. How is this going to break our independence?

Amazing. A year ago, it was the patriotism theme. Everywhere you went, in every industry-sponsored video and PowerPoint presentation, flags were flying and Marcellus Shale was being touted as "the answer to America's goal of energy independence" and "If you are against drilling, you are for foreign oil." Now, since that doesn't seem to be working, they're pulling "the Lord" into their strategy. I also heard that "faith" was brought up by one of the MSC's other puppets in a recent presentation, but I haven't had a chance to view the video so I'll refrain from using names and making comments until I do.

For the record, we put our three children through Catholic grade schools, Catholic high schools, and two of them graduated from The Catholic University of America. For giggles, I once calculated what the non-public education ( tuition only ) of our children cost us through graduation from high school, and it was well north of $125K. Adding CUA's tuition for eight years, and it boggles my mind that the money tree in our back yard has been so darn productive. P.S. - with a few exceptions due to travel and other conflicts...Mass every weekend for Mom & Dad.

So, when Tom Ridge - the highly-compensated advisor to the Marcellus Shale Coalition - seeks to justify what the natural gas industry is doing, and plans to do, to my home state by bringing "the Lord" into the debate, I will simply offer that he and his cohorts have made an egregious and perhaps fatal mistake. I wonder...who, exactly, is the "us" in Mr. Ridge's statement?
  
I already knew these folks were devoid of ethics or morals, but just when you think the natural gas industry couldn't slither any lower - they do. 

I can't wait to see what they dream dredge up next.