NEWS . Man Overboard!

Bedrock of Democracy

Who's watching the anti-gas drilling watchmen?


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Published: Sep 15, 2010

"Extremists." No shortage of 'em lately, is there? Extremists blowing up soldiers and civilians in the Middle East, extremists threatening to burn the sacred text of one culture to demonstrate the supremacy of their own here. And, to top it all off, extremists lobbying their elected representatives — can you believe it? In America? — to reign in an industry whose power, wealth and sway over government grows daily.

Lest that last group seem somewhat, um, unextreme ... well, hayseed, just ask the commonwealth. Two news reports out last week indicate that federal and state authorities now consider local anti-gas drilling activists — mostly, from what Man Overboard! has seen, a ragtag collection of homespun activists worried that the companies injecting toxic waste below their water tables and into their streams will somehow pollute one or the other — to be extremist enough to warrant supervision and the covert sharing of covert information with gas companies. Oh yes.

The first break came when Pro Publica published the contents of an installment of the Pennsylvania Intelligence Bulletin — a document circulated to local law enforcement and intelligence officials — which listed among "Dates of Interest" several small-town meetings over drilling issues as well as — gasp! — a recent screening of the documentary Gasland at the Piazza at Schmidts.

Gov. Ed Rendell spokesman Gary Tuma tells City Paper that these alerts followed five acts of vandalism against drilling sites, including two incidents in which shotguns were fired — though the other three were so "minor" as to lack description, none have been tied to any activists, and Tuma acknowledged there hasn't been trouble at any anti-drilling activities.

But Man Overboard! knows of one such incident: On Aug. 21, Julie Sautner, a Dimock, Pa., resident-turned-activist (this change happened sometime after her well water turned brown and began to bubble with methane) showed up with other drilling opponents at a Cabot Oil & Gas picnic armed with ... a jug of her contaminated well water. Lucky for us, the jug was wrestled from her hands by private Cabot security guards armed, several witnesses say, with 9 mm handguns and bulletproof vests.

The second revelation of the state's apparent mistrust of drilling opponents was broken, ahem, by your dear Man Overboard! on The Clog last week. An e-mail composed by state Homeland Security Director James Powers — originally addressed to an anti-drilling activist who had apparently been mistaken for a gas industry insider — was then passed along to yours truly. Along with a warning not to distribute info where anti-drillers might see it, the e-mail contained this mind-warping sentence: "We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies."

The last time I checked, "fomenting dissent" against powerful private interests is the bedrock of democracy, not a threat to it.

Rendell apparently agrees. On Tuesday evening, he called a press conference to apologize for the monitoring. "Protesting is a God-given American right," he said.

Extremist.

Isaiah Thompson is in no way fomenting dissent, honest. E-mail him at isaiah.thompson@citypaper.net.