Western PA School Board Member Speaks Out on Anti-Drillers

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A school board member from a district in western Pennsylvania that recently voted to allow Marcellus Shale drilling under, but not on top, of school property wrote a must-read article that appears on the American Thinker website today. He shares with readers the process the board went through, the agonizing, researching, questioning, and public hearings on gas drilling. And the board member came to a key conclusion about anti-drillers: at their core, they are unreasonable people. To wit:

Finally, conservatives take the arguments of liberals seriously, but liberals do not return the favor. Our school board held many public meetings leading up to the vote on the gas lease. We researched, discussed, debated, and agonized. We heard from the industry, the superintendent, other school districts, and each other. And we patiently listened…to a withering barrage of exclusively alarmist information from dozens of anti-fracking activists.

In my public statements to this group, I consistently conceded that there are legitimate concerns associated with the fracking process, particularly as regards the disruption caused by the initial activity, and problems related to dealing with waste water. After the initial 8-1 vote to move forward with a lease, the response from one of the more vocal residents was very illustrative: "the board had voted," this person wrote in the local newspaper, to "jump off the bridge along with everyone else, ignoring their moral and ethical obligations." In other words, either you’re against fracking, or you’re some combination of stupid, corrupt, immoral, and short-sighted. Not a lot of room for common ground, is there?*

The author also details other examples of his encounters with decidedly anti-science, anti-drillers. Please take two minutes to read this excellent article!

*American Thinker (May 4, 2012) – Playing Out Our Absurd National Debates at the Local Level: The Case of Fracking