Web pressure on gas
Technology and the Internet are doing to the energy industry what they did to the music and photo industries. They are collapsing the status quo and the industry is rattled by what it understands is a shift in power.
At a natural gas industry symposium, GasMart 2011, worried voices were reported by an industry publication, NGI's Shale Daily.
David Ciarlone of Alcoa said: "I clearly remember how a promising energy technology, the nuclear industry, lost the confidence of the public and billions of dollars that had been invested were abandoned. Without significant changes, shale gas, like nuclear power, could be more remembered for promises made than hopes realized."
Three indicators characterize this shift:
n Rise of public opinion via a global "neighborhood watch" - It isn't just the energy industry that is global. Property owners and citizens worldwide know about "gaz de schiste" in France and the National Assembly vote there to prohibit hydraulic fracturing. Australia's Frackman has his own Facebook page.
n Rise of the transparent culture - It is increasingly damaging to corporate brands for gas/oil companies to pretend the industry's drilling, storage and pipeline practices have no adverse affects on health, environment and the communities in which they operate.
n It's personal - Every student of social media knows that "authenticity" is the watchword. Today's global, wired challenge to the energy industry is motivated by personal testimony.
The Times-Tribune account of Bradford County resident Crystal Stroud's compelling testimony about the adverse health effects of drilling is but the latest example. And such personal testimony is much more credible than slick TV ads sponsored by the industry.
While the energy industry ramps up spending for more lobbying and legal firewalls, it struggles to understand why the status quo is collapsing. There are three reasons:
n The energy industry speaks in absolutes that were not seriously challenged until recently.
n The industry characterizes citizen opposition as left-wing environmental wackos and even extremists. It ignores its trampling on property rights, which offends conservatives.
n The industry demonstrates it is not capable of living up to its own published principles such as environmental protection, accountability and transparency. (After seven months, the Marcellus Shale Coalition cannot explain what its second guiding principle means it will do at the well site.)
Even Texas is no longer a sanctuary for the energy industry. The Dallas Morning News recently editorialized: "Local governments across North Texas are sounding alarms about the possibility of increased air pollution, groundwater contamination, noise and declining property values coinciding with drilling companies' push into urban areas.
"These concerns are not overblown. ... But the industry's tendency has too often been to deny, deflect and use judicial bullying to get its way."
To return to the comparison with the nuclear industry, the shale gas fracking industry is radioactive in terms of public trust. And it achieved this distinction the old fashioned way - it "earned" it.