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And Plenty of PA Politics, Too

You may have noticed a new approach by the Gas Industry to reach out and touch us with their concern. The Marcellus Shale Coalition has taken to the radio to promote its new online forum. Their new web-effort, which runs until July 20th, focuses on Southeastern PA, and was created “to better understand the questions residents of greater Philadelphia have about natural gas development in Pennsylvania.” Another major industry lobby group, Energy In Depth, has been busy debunking Gasland with all its might, along with all the other documented evidence which proves shale gas development pollutes land, water and air. If all this makes you uneasy, then your instincts are right on. Writer Dory Hippauf takes a good look at this latest industry tack, delving into the people and companies behind it, in Energy-In-Depth: The Dots.

The Dots make it clear how gas industry and political players interconnect. Using clean graphics and reliable information, Hippauf makes it easy to understand how these same players are perpetrating the transformation of Pennsylvania’s rural counties into one heavily industrialized mega-zone of under-regulated shale gas production. Her series of eight reports on Natural Gas Players has become the seminal handbook on following the gas money. As she puts it, “You can’t tell the players without a scorecard!” Hippauf was also hip to Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey Mc Clendon’s crimes long before they came to light and he was forced to resign as the Chairman of Chesapeake’s Board in disgrace.

On her blog, Frackorporation, Connecting the Dots of Natural Gas Frackers at fracktoids.blogspot.com, Hippauf regularly illustrates the relationships among major gas stakeholders in the Marcellus. Like this prescient nugget depicting the cozy relationship between DEP Secretary Krancer, Aqua CEO Nicholas DeBenedicits and former PA Governor, and current gashole-in-chief, Tom Ridge.

Dory’s often described as “brilliant” and she galvanizes not only the media, but veteran and fledgling fractivists alike. The Energy-In-Depth Dots led me to delve deeper into FTI Consulting. My background is PR, and my first job was working for a subsidiary of Osaka Gas Company in Japan. Naturally, I wondered about the capabilities of the firm that produces Energy-In-Depth‘s website and blog content. A full-fledged fractivist these days, I found this fractoid particularly interesting…

“[From FTI Consulting’s website] Our specific client services include:

Social media audit and strategy development
Integration with overall marketing/communications
Monitoring and engagement
Social media marketing and campaign
Reputation management and blogger/online influencer relations
Paid social advertising”

The airwaves are already saturated with gas ads, and the endless EID budget is pulsing through various FTI departments as the Gas Industry tries to wrest control of the public conversation. Social media is the next, logical hill to climb. Best be on our toes, especially when they get cracking on the “Monitoring and Engagement” part.

Politics-In-Depth

On Monday, July 9, 2012, WHYY’s Marty Moss-Coane distinguished herself yet again by continuing to focus on the issues developing around shale gas in Pennsylvania’s Gas and Energy Politics. Moss-Coane interviews fellow NPR reporter Scott Detrow, who covers all things shale for StateImpact.npr.org and Liam Denning, editor and writer for The Wall Street Journal.

Yet it was Susan Phillips, Detrow’s reporting partner on StateImpact.npr.org, who reported the second most appalling piece of political news of recent weeks in DEP Secretary Krancer Stumps for Natural Gas Processing Facility in Delaware County. DEP is known to be overwhelmed by permit applications, to such an extent that Krancer has said he would favor privatizing the whole stupid process, thereby inviting the fox to guard the hen house. Nevertheless, The Secretary reportedly proclaimed that “DEP employ­ees will ‘work night and day‘ to get indus­try the nec­es­sary permits.”

Maybe I’m old school, but it seems undignified for any appointed official to stump for anything. It gives him the appearance of being made of straw, and it confirms two things: One, that the Corbett administration is out of touch with the dangerous reality that DEP cannot keep up with inspections and enforcement any more than it can handle processing all the new permits; Two, that Pennsylvania needs a Moratroium On New Unconventional Gas Production Permits. If for no other reason, it would allow this chronically overwhelmed department a chance to catch up on its burgeoning backlog.

Tags: Dory Hippauf, Energy In Depth, Gas Drilling Moratrorium, Krancer, Marty Moss-Coane, Radio Times, Shamelss Gas Promotion

This entry was posted on July 10, 2012 at 8:33 pm and is filed under Energy, Environment, fracking, PA DEP, Politics, Unconventional Gas Drilling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.