The industry wonders why the public doesn't trust it, but it's own behavior is partly to blame.... [+]
When I speak to energy industry groups, I am most frequently asked variations on these two questions:
1) Why does the oil industry have such a bad reputation with the public and
2) What can be done about it?
One answer is that the industry needs to stop acting like it has something to hide. On the debate over hydraulic fracturing, in particular, the industry ceded its chance to lead the public discourse because it retreated to its usual posture of denial and opacity rather than transparency. In recent years, some companies have tried to change that, but the seeds of doubt have already been sown in the public's mind.
And then, companies do things like this. Mother Jones reports that landowners in Pennsylvania recently settled a dispute with
But that's not all. A transcript from a court hearing in 2011 shows Range's attorneys insisted that the gag order extends to the landowners' children, ages 7 and 10. Presumably, the order would no longer apply once the children reach adulthood, but it's not clear. Range's lawyer told Mother Jones that the terms of the settlement apply to the whole family and "we would certainly enforce it." Range itself has a different view:
A Range Resources spokesperson, however, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this week that they don't actually think that:
Matt Pitzarella, a Range Resources spokesman, said Wednesday that the comments by Mr. Swetz are "not something we agree with" and added "we don't believe the . . . settlement applies to children." He also said that Range has entered into no other nondisclosure agreements that bar children from speaking.
Does it really matter? The company allowed its lawyer to press for the settlement terms and to threaten enforcement. What's more, reporters were barred from the original hearing and the Pittsburgh paper had to go to court to get the records unsealed. Range, in other words, is looking like a company that has something to hide. In fact, it seems so afraid of what might be revealed about its practices that it is trying to silence the mouths of babes.
Now that the story is getting national attention, the company's best response is that it doesn't agree with its own lawyers.
It's not clear from the story what the family's health claims were or whether a link to fracking was proved. But that issue once again gets overshadowed by an oil companies' bully tactics.
Fracking has the potential to change the energy and economic future of the country, unleashing an abundant supply of natural gas that's better for the environment than coal and oil. Yet the industry has failed at every turn to get this message to the general public.
This sort of behavior is exactly why the public doesn't trust the energy industry. What can it do about it? Well, for starters, it could stop getting gag orders against children.
