Raucous crowd meets on marcellus shale debate - pro landowners bussed in by industry

[RamboLiberal]

Competing crowds tried to out-shout each other for more than four hours Monday night as Department of Energy representatives came to Washington & Jefferson College for help in forming a national plan for gas drilling, but instead sat quiet as a vicious neighbor-versus-neighbor ordeal played out in the auditorium before them.

The itinerary was simple, with speakers getting two minutes each to address the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board members charged with forming a policy on gas drilling regulations and the hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," extraction process that allows access to most of the gas. It quickly became a referendum on the industry that has infused money and controversy into the towns that lie on the Marcellus Shale gas formation.

It was an auditorium divided: In the span of 10 minutes, the panel members were called drug cartels by one speaker and patriotic heroes by another.

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The controversy leading up to the meeting was amplified Friday when the Post-Gazette and other news outlets reported that Energy in Depth, a leading industry lobbying group, was sponsoring trips to the meeting for pro-drilling landowners from northeastern Pennsylvania and New York.


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11165/1153562-503.stm#ixzz1PIRmW700


Larry Roberts/Post-Gazette
Ken Gayman of Greene County, who opposes fracking, waves a flag as he walks through the auditorium before the hearing

Raw video at link.

[bbinacan]

1. I'd love to know

how many of the protesters owned gas rights on their property.