"Both DEP and Chesapeake declined to release the response."
Read the rest here.
Folks, Chesapeake Energy is going to do what they want and say what they want. The DEP, however, is an agency of the commonwealth of PA and as such, is supposed to answer to its citizens. Unfortunately, as part of Team Tom-Tom, they are failing on that front as well. Even though it's coming from someone up for reelection, check out this article about what a commissioner from Bradford County thinks about the job the DEP is doing.
From my perspective as a native born son of Pennsylvania, as the descendant of people who were walking the trails of the Iroquois and Susquehannocks in the 1700's and perhaps earlier, as the grandson of a coal miner who died of "Black Lung", and as someone who's forgotten more about the complex interrelated environmental issues surrounding the Marcellus Shale Madness than most of the self-proclaimed experts out there, we are allowing our own government to dictate the terms of our existence and trash our commonwealth's future. Has the power of "We, the People" lost its significance?
From Michael Milken ( remember him? ) to Bernie Madoff, and from Wall Street to Main Street, we have seen time and time again that people will do anything and say anything to make more money, regardless of who or what gets destroyed along the way. That will never change, so it just blows my grey matter asunder when I actually read blogs that lend any credibility to anything coming from the mouths or newsrooms of the natural gas industry and their various coalitions. It actually makes me wonder if some of the relative newcomers to blogging out there are, in reality, fronts for the NG industry, because no one can be that clueless. Then again...
Pure and simple, it's all about greed. And if you believe otherwise, you are an absolute fool.
Folks, the DEP is unwilling and/or incapable of protecting our Susquehanna River watershed, and our current Governor is a pawn of the NG industry, so it's truly up to us. I believe it's time to take my little role in this nascent and disorganized anti-drilling movement in a completely different direction. To that end, as I have law firms and consulting agencies with direct ties to the industry visiting this site almost daily, along with some regular visitors from the Harrisburg and Washington suburbs ( Hi guys & gals! ), I will be converting this to a private blog within the next few weeks. If you want news, there are plenty of other blogs out there ( check my blogroll ) that will keep you up to date on the latest.
I just have one or two more tasks on my to-do list to complete.
Enjoy your weekend.
Don, I could not agree with you more completely. I blogged today about this poor handling of the Leroy Township fraccident also. There is no excuse for this kind of withholding of information. We need it desperately. Someone may get sick and won't know why.
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