Fracking: The Great Uniter?

On the surface, the Marcellus Shale natural gas boom is the classic free market success story. The kind that rank and file Republicans unite behind. 

The typical GOP mindset would tell us that the market allowed Halliburton to create the technology and the government should not regulate how this technology is used. 

The industry is exempt from the 2005 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and the Clean Water Act.  Aside from the obvious Halliburton/Vice President Cheney connection, this loophole fits the GOP’s traditional stance on domestic energy. 

Who will ever forget “drill, baby drill”? 

The politics behind the sentiment are simple- jobs, less dependency on foreign oil and an increase in national security. This is all great, unless of course you are a fisherman in  Louisiana or have poisonous tap water in Pennsylvania. 

Party history is one reason that the natural gas industry contributed millions of dollars to Pennsylvania Republican candidates in 2010. 

Pennsylvania is funny state politically. We have the “T”. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia traditionally go Democrat while the rest of the state, in the shape of a “T”, goes Republican. 

This trend held in the last three Presidential elections. The Democrats only won 25% of the counties in each of the elections, but that candidate won the state each time. The counties where most of the fracking is happening typically went Republican.

Interestingly enough, Washington County never went for President Bush and did not go for President Obama either. I guess if you want to be President, you don’t want to win Washington County. 

What Unites is Stronger than What Divides

So what does all of this energy history and political geography have to do with uniting us? Let me tell you. 

I was watching Gasland the other day and I kept thinking about the political leanings of all the people affected by drilling in the film. Just about everywhere Josh Fox went was rural. Rural Wyoming. Rural Colorado. Rural Pennsylvania. All typical Republican strongholds. 

Guess what? These folks weren’t singing the praises of energy independence. They weren’t telling government to get off their property. Instead they were wondering where their government was and they were cursing the “liars” who “raped” their land because of greed. 

Air and water. We need it. We can’t live without it. We the people are tired of corporate interests destroying these lifelines in order to the line their pockets. 

We are not fooled by their smokescreens of being safer from terrorists and promises of new jobs. We know why they want this gas and we are beginning to see what they are willing to do to get it. 

To really understand the potential for uniting that this topic has, check out this extraordinary letter written by The Association of Pittsburgh Priests.

Progressives and priests. Evangelicals and environmentalists. Hippies and good old boys. Politically, these groups may not see eye to eye very often, but they all need air and water. Even more that that, beneath the surface, the belief that we should leave the planet inhabitable for our children and grandchildren. 

Who knows, one day we may have to thank the natural gas industry for uniting our country.