Categorically false claims about the safe, tightly regulated development of job-creating American natural gas appeared in a recent story (“Let’s Talk About Art: Photography and the Marcellus Shale Drilling Debate,” Oct. 2). The suggestion that responsible natural gas development caused tap water to catch fire and that “the water was full of chemicals from a nearby fracking facility” could not be further from the truth.
The Post-Gazette’s source? “According to videographers.” Are these unnamed videographers hydrologists, professional engineers or environmental experts? Unlikely.
This baseless claim is perhaps related to Colorado, where a gentleman featured in a widely discredited film ignites his tap water. According to Colorado regulators — not nameless videographers — it was due to naturally occurring methane and was “not related to oil and gas activity.”
Perhaps most disturbing — aside from the fact that the Post-Gazette stands by this provably false claim — is that this “educational” story appears in the paper’s “My Generation” section targeting “kids.”
We’re all entitled to our own opinions, but not to our own facts. We hope the Post-Gazette, moving forward, will ensure that its coverage is grounded in facts. Its readers, especially our next generation, deserve as much.
STEVE FORDE
Vice President
Marcellus Shale Coalition
NOTE: Click HERE to view this letter online.
