Short film gives viewers a tour of Pennsylvania's most drilled county
October 29, 2014
Bradford, PA County Commissioner Doug McLinko shows viewers the reality of hosting hydraulic fracturing operations.
America’s Energy Forum, a grassroots education and advocacy organization, today released a film that showed first-hand the impact of the natural gas industry on a Pennsylvania county centered in the Marcellus Shale natural gas deposit. The six-minute film is a guided tour hosted by Bradford County Commissioner, Doug McLinko. Now in his third term in office, Commissioner McLinko volunteered to take viewers all through Bradford County showing drill sites, pipelines, highways and local businesses that have been impacted in some way by the natural gas industry and the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking.
The purpose of the tour was to give viewers a real, unvarnished look at a community that has hosted energy industry companies and their employees for several years. Commissioner McLinko was not provided a script and was asked only to take the filmmakers around the mostly rural Bradford County in any direction of his choosing.
“When I give these pick-up truck tours I don’t have on set route, and pre-canned locations that are set up just for show,” McLinko said. “I ask everyone--what do you want to see and what do you want to learn--then I take them to see for themselves. I urge everyone not to believe everything you hear and read. I also invite everyone to come to the beautiful Bradford County, the most drilled County in PA, to see for yourselves what natural gas exploration REALLY looks like,” concluded McLinko.
McLinko said that opponents of fracking have done a good job of confusing and scaring the general public. “Facts” he said, “are often hidden by the opposition because it doesn’t fit their narrative that all energy resource recovery is bad for communities and the people that live there. In my experience,” he said, “nothing could be further from the truth.”
McLinko recalled his distaste of the methods and misinformation being spread by the opponents of natural gas development when things were just getting started a few years ago. “Early on in Bradford County our saying was: 'the most information is misinformation," because that’s what it was, whatever you heard, you just couldn’t believe because it wasn’t true. Tapping our tremendous natural gas resources has been a blessing to our County and its residents,” he said.
Bradford County sits at the epicenter of the Marcellus Shale natural gas deposit. It is among the most heavily drilled counties not only in Pennsylvania but across the nation as well. Revenues from drilling have brightened the fiscal prospects for Bradford County to a point where County Commissioners were able to retire the remaining debt held by county government.
The film can be seen at America’s Energy Forum as well as on YouTube.
America’s Energy Forum is an education and advocacy organization that seeks to inform individuals on energy issues and their impact on America’s economy and workforce.
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