Medical Doctor Exposes Anti-Pipeline Lies about PennEast
Dr. Gilbert Ross, M.D., is the senior director of medicine and public health at the American Council on Science and Health in New York. Dr. Ross penned an eloquent article that exposes the lies being peddled by the “leaders” of Hopewell Township, New Jersey in their vote to prevent construction of the PennEast Pipeline in the township. Dr. Ross makes the point that we have repeatedly made (although far less eloquently) for years here on MDN: The real philosophy that underpins the actions of people opposing fracking, pipelines, anything to do with shale–is an irrational hatred of fossil fuels. But opposers can’t cast their opposition in those terms or they would be laughed out of office and out of public meetings. So they use FUD–fear, uncertainty and doubt–to make the hoi polloi believe oil and gas drilling and pipelines are somehow a threat, a danger to everyone and everything. That is, they lie about the risks associated with oil and gas in order to advance their own twisted anti-fossil fuel agenda. Here to make the point better than we do is Dr. Ross, writing in a major New Jersey newspaper…
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Let’s talk about optics and the strategies employed by fossil fuel haters. We’ll leave aside our standard argument that people who hate fossil fuels, like natural gas, are wildly hypocritical as their very existence is a direct result of the benefits of fossil fuels. Today we focus on two men who hit life’s lottery–one (younger) became a pediatrician, the other (older) a physics professor. Last week the two chained themselves to the entrance of Spectra Energy’s Burrillville, Rhode Island compressor station to call attention to Spectra’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) project to beef up the compressor station and add pipelines to bring more cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus Shale natural gas to gas-starved Rhode Island and other New England states. The two protesters belong to a fossil fuel hate group called FANG–Fighting Against Natural Gas. Using PVC pipe, chicken wire and (yes) tar, they intertwined their arms to make it extremely difficult to un-knot them. The police had to cut away a section of the fence and cart the fence and the two protesters to the hospital where doctors and nurses had to waste time untangling the mess. The optics, of course, is that FANG wants you to hear about a doctor and a physics professor (supposedly smart people) who put themselves in harm’s way to protest something–so the something must be evil and rotten since these two virtuous “high value” (and smarter than the rest of us) members of society are sounding the alarm. We think you should focus on different optics–the logo/mascot FANG uses on their website (pictured here, taken from their website). A wolf bearing its fangs indicates extreme danger–and a willingness to go to extremes to cause property, and perhaps even bodily, damage. Homeland Security should take note…
Ever hear the phrase, “diggin’ deep”? That’s what anti-drillers are doing in New Hampshire with their opposition to a pipeline slated to come through their area in Hillsborough County. As plans for Kinder Morgan’s $6 billion Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline project that will stretch from Pennsylvania through New York into Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and back into Massachusetts near Boston progress, more and more articles appear in newspapers, like the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, attempting to convince people the pipeline is from Satan himself. In fact, according to the latest article, NED may just be from Satan! The Ledger-Transcript claims the pipeline, if it follows the same route as already-built high voltage electric lines, would cut through a hay field that (151 years ago) used to be a potato field and is the site of a miracle of importance to Seventh-Day Adventists…
It’s always a sad day when MDN has to report on the death of a worker related to the Marcellus/Utica Shale. On Tuesday, Ricky Dettman was operating a bulldozer on a steep grade in Tioga County, PA working on installing a pipeline for Energy Transfer Partners when the bulldozer rolled over, several times, killing Ricky. We’re not sure exactly which pipeline project it is Ricky was working on, but its a 36-inch pipeline (a big pipeline) that will flow Marcellus and Utica Shale gas, according to the PR agency working for ETP. Below are four news accounts of the accident. They all have slightly different accounts, including a discrepancy on Ricky’s age–he was either 54 or 55 years-old. Ricky hailed from Nebraska…