"When a fish starts to stink, it starts from the head."
Q. Guess who the Chairman of the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee for PA is?
A. Senator Mary Jo White.
Her State Senate news page: http://www.senatormjwhite.com/news.htm
Observe the propaganda coming from the Senator in the exchange in these two editorials..
"Raise a voice over shale drilling plan"
Katherine Watt
Tuesday, Mar. 16, 2010
Air and soil contamination follow the drilling and mining dust. Royalty payoffs are unpredictable at best. Economic benefits from jobs last a couple decades at most, but lost property values are common, and ecosystem damage is multigenerational.
The problem is, there are currently no legal ways to stop destruction and poisoning by gas-drilling companies wielding state-stamped permits. Most local authorities know that and give up without a protesting peep, because knowledgeable attorneys have warned
them that corporate property rights trump local public health and well-being and resistance is futile.
The state Department of Environmental Protection’s role is not to protect water, land and air; staffers are paid to approve applications, not reject them. So these two entities — gas drillers and DEP regulators — can and do destroy communities and ecosystems,
even when the people in those places don’t want to be destroyed and say so. Without being able to say no to dangerous abuse, we can’t come together to figure out ways to make our lives better and more secure.
The upshot? We’re not free and we don’t live in a democracy, even when we’re allowed into public meetings to watch the permit- stamping, and can sign petitions and write letters to our state representatives, even if we get monitoring stations to let us know the exact date our wells have run dry or gone undrinkable.
Katherine Watt is a community columnist for Centre Daily Times and a member of the Centre County Natural Gas Task Force subcommittee on Public Policy and Legal Issues.Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/2010/03/16/1855406/raise-a-voice-over-shale-drilling.html#ixzz0onLjO1b9
Now, take a look at how Sen. White is intellectually limited to self righteous indignation, steam rolling and dis-info in response to Katherine's assertion of fact in the shale gas pollution issue....
"Gas drilling, DEP given a bad rap"
Tuesday, Mar. 30, 2010
Sen. Mary Jo White
I read with interest and significant concern the letter submitted by Katherine
Watt, a member of the Centre County Natural Gas Task Force, regarding the potential impact of Marcellus Shale natural gas development.
Watt makes several statements that are neither fair nor accurate. Her statement that the state Department of Environmental Protection staffers can and do destroy communities and ecosystems is an outrageous indictment of the hundreds of dedicated employees who pride themselves on ensuring that Pennsylvania’s air, land and water resources are protected.
Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/2010/03/30/1883181/gas-drilling-dep-given-a-bad-rap.html#ixzz0onK0sxmMWell guess what Senator White, If you had a good case of shale gas drilling you'd have the beneficiaries right up there in public meetings telling everyone how great it is. But you don't because they don't exist.
Angelo
