BOBTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Critics are raging after an energy
giant offered pizza coupons to a community near a natural gas well that
exploded last month, killing a worker.
News stories, TV shows and
blogs — many sarcastic or outright scornful — spread the word far and
wide. "Shame on you," one person wrote about the offer by Chevron Corp.
"How insulting!" said another. Comedy Central’s satirical "The Colbert
Report" skewered it.
But the 750 or so residents of the hamlet of
Bobtown? Not one has signed an online petition demanding an apology for
the pizza offer. In fact, during a recent visit, The Associated Press
found the talk of the town is more the furious response by outsiders.
"We
feel it was something outside groups generated," said Pete Novak, a
co-director of the Polish American Club, a local gathering spot. None of
the patrons has voiced outrage, he said, and residents laughed about
how people who have never set foot in Bobtown claim to speak for its
citizens.
Several people noted that Chevron’s pizza offer was made
to apologize for traffic after the fire, not to downplay the loss of
life.
"I thought it was pretty decent of them," said Ray Elli, 54,
who noted that the fire was about a mile outside town, on a ridge, and
that people in town didn’t feel threatened.
Bill Sowden, co-owner
of Bobtown Pizza, the area’s only restaurant, says 12 people have
redeemed the coupons distributed by Chevron. The whole issue, he said,
was blown out of proportion.
"We’re just a food place," he said.
The
outsized reaction from people not directly affected by the accident
illustrates the larger passions surrounding the fracking debate. Many
critics seek stricter regulations or bans to protect air and water from
pollution, while supporters speak of the economic benefits for an
energy-hungry nation. Each side claims the high moral ground.
About 12,000 people have signed an online petition demanding Chevron apologize, according to petition
organizer Karen Feridun.
"There
are a few from nearby communities, but none right from Bobtown,"
Feridun wrote in emails this week to the AP. She lives about 250 miles
away, at the other end of Pennsylvania. The petition isn’t even on
public display in Bobtown, about 2 miles from the West Virginia border.
One
petition signer from New York City mentioned "Chevron’s cavalier
arrogance." Other signers came from Alaska, Florida and many other
states, as well as Australia, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Germany and Italy.
Chevron hasn’t responded to the petition, Feridun said.
Company
spokesman Kent Robertson said in an email that Chevron works to be a
good partner in communities, that it has been "overwhelmed by the
support" from residents and that it appreciates their understanding.
For
more than a century, the region around Bobtown has been coal country,
and there’s still an active mine nearby. But in the past five years,
natural gas locked in shale deep underground became newly accessible
because of the advent of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
On
Feb. 11, a Chevron well outside of town exploded, killing Ian McKee, 27,
who lived about a half-hour away in Morgantown, W.Va., and worked for a
contractor. Five days later, as emergency vehicles clogged some narrow
roads around Bobtown, Chevron representatives visited about 100 people,
seeking concerns or questions and leaving a gift certificate for a large
pizza and 2-liter drink at Bobtown Pizza, which had just opened.
Elli,
who was born in Bobtown, said he feels for the worker who died and his
family, but that the well fire didn’t threaten other residents. And
while there are differing opinions about the drilling boom in the
community, he doesn’t see a problem with it.
"We need gas. Better
than getting it from other countries," he said. His current priority is
not getting an apology from Chevron, he said, but getting ready for the
spring wild turkey season.
He noted that many locals have made
money off the drilling boom, both from royalties — which can reach
hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars for landowners — and
jobs.
Overall, Pennsylvanians support the drilling boom, said G.
Terry Madonna, a professor of public affairs at Franklin & Marshall
College in Lancaster. A January poll by the school found that 64 percent
of respondents somewhat or strongly favor the gas drilling industry,
compared with 27 percent who somewhat or strongly oppose it. In some
conservative rural areas with active drilling, the support is even
higher.
"I think it’s pretty fascinating that folks in the
community" aren’t openly upset with Chevron, Madonna said, agreeing that
such kerfuffles are surrogates in the political fight over American
energy production.
Novak had some advice for all the people who
think they know how Bobtown residents feel: "Come to this small rural
area and see for themselves."
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