Shale Gas Industry Insider: We Are Losing the Messaging War on Fracking
Sep 13th, 2011 | By Mark | Category: Fracking, Lead ArticlesNatGas Consulting
The shale gas industry has had its collective ass kicked, and kicked hard, by Gasland and others opposed to hydraulic fracturing and needs to redefine its core messages to defuse a burgeoning negative public perception of the controversial drilling technique, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association (COGA) said today.
“What we’ve seen in the last few years, and I hope it’s peaking, is a completely heightened public awareness around hydraulic fracturing and an increase in active opposition,” Tisha Conoly-Schuller said this afternoon. “I hate to credit the movie Gasland, but it’s really changed the conversation.”
Conoly-Schuller made her comments to a group of shale gas industry executives as the Keynote Speaker on the opening day of the “Enhancing Shale Oil & Gas Development Strategies” conference in Denver, Colorado. The conference, organized by Marcus Evans, will continue throughout tomorrow. The conference offers industry executives a variety of workshops and panel discussions on using “drilling, completion and reservoir engineering knowledge to advance exploration and diversify shale portfolios,” according to material prepared by Marcus Evans describing the event.
NaturalGasWatch.org has been designated the “Official Blogger” of the conference, and is not receiving any compensation from the industry in exchange for writing about the event.
Conoly-Schuller noted that the opposition to hydraulic fracturing — or “fracking” as it has come to be known in the parlance of our times — has evolved remarkably over the last few years, even though the science and empirical data related to hydraulic fracturing indicates that the practice has nothing to do with water contamination.
Shale gas industry executives credit the movie, "Gasland" with helping to shape public opinion about hydraulic fracturing, even though they say there is no proof that the practice contributes to contaminated drinking water. Image from the film, "Gasland."
“The flaming faucet — that was disproven by the Colorado Oil & Gas Authority,” Conoly-Schuller said. “The methane in that well was naturally occurring. People have been lighting their water on fire in that area for 100 years. Josh Fox knows this and he has never admitted it — and he’s working on Gasland II.”
Today, she explained, those opposed to hydraulic fracturing can no longer be characterized as environmental extremists because the movement has gone mainstream. She credited Fox, the producer of the movie, Gasland, which helped to coalesce opposition to fracking, with playing a large role in that shift.
As a result, Conoly-Schuller continued, the industry needs to change not only its messaging, but how it delivers its key talking points.
“We need to change,” Conoly-Schuller said. “We’re talking to moms and dads and grandmothers who are worried about the safety of the water their children are drinking, and that’s an emotional issue. It hits a chord. We need to be sensitive to that. We’re not on engineering and scientific turf anymore, we’re on emotional turf, and we need to get our point across.”
Conoly-Schuller told the executives that COGA had recently completed some polling around the issue of how the public perceives hydraulic fracturing and the shale gas industry.
The news, she said, was not good.
“The public is skeptical of anything we say,” she said. “The favorable perception of the oil and gas industry polls at seven percent — that’s lower than Congress. The public does not believe us. We need someone else delivering our message for us.”
Conoly-Schuller went on to outline a set of recommendations that she said would help the industry improve its public perception. Her recommendations included:
- identifying other messengers to carry positive messages about oil and gas to a skeptical public; university professors, she said, polled the highest and are well positioned in that regard.
- broadening the sources of information for executives — “We have sources we are comfortable with,” she said, “and they reinforce our views. We need to go beyond that, even if it makes our blood boil, so we can learn the language used by our opposition and learn what they think. These nuts make up about 90 percent of our population, so we can’t really call them nuts any more. They’re the mainstream.”
- respecting industry critics — “Historically, the industry has been dismissive of its critics,” she said. “We have to understand that they are well-intentioned and believe in what they are doing.”
- recognize the emotional nature of the discourse — “It’s ineffective to respond to emotion with science. We need empathy and we have to recognize that emotional is not irrational.”
- reframe the issue of hydraulic fracturing in economic terms — “We need to talk about how energy is the building block of our economy.”
- engage in dialogue about hydraulic fracturing more broadly — “Engage with people with people not necessarily to change their minds, but to learn what they know and think. That will inform what works.”
- reposition the industry to appeal more broadly to young people — “The issue is serious, but we shouldn’t take ourselves so seriously. We need to become much more clever. Our industry is going to have to become hipper.”
In that respect, Conoly-Schuller said, industry executives and communicators are going to have to become well versed in the use of social media and online tools.
“People that like South Park are our audience,” she said, “and we need to figure out how to talk to them. We need to figure out what works and how to get it out to them.”
Conoly-Schuller closed her remarks by urging each of the executives to get on Facebook.
“That’s your homework because that’s where they are, the people who are talking about this, the people we need to reach,” she said.
It wasn’t hard to “kick the industry’s ass, and kick it hard” in rural PA. All we had to do was take pictures and show them to our friends and family.
Here’s the current Lackawaxen River during a wet crossing of the Tennessee Pipeline expansion (before flooding and dredging): http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5cr05wJ0QL0/TkRBDx92dfI/AAAAAAAAAF0/sb5f52KFYrw/s1600/Unnamed.jpg
That’s a 100 yard wide clear cut along prime fishing waters with a road, yes, a road, IN the river.
Feel free to reuse that picture. I took it and I fish around there with my father. That’s why we’re pissed off out here. And we’re sportsmen, gun owners, working men, and we will rise up along the Delaware River to stop our tourism, agriculture, recreation lands, and property values from being destroyed by heavy industrial operations. Nevermind the chemicals and the fracking. 10 to 15 acres of industrial sites have no place here and you can pass that onto the conference.
I frac rural pennsylvania and I promise that you haven’t kicked anyones ass. Frac is going strong aand will continue to do so for a very long time in this whole country. We will stimulate the economy by creating jobs because no one else is trying. The frac process is safe and it works. NNatural gas is a clean burning energy that we have an abundance of, but in order to get to this abundance you need to frac each well to make it produce enough to be useful. So what im trying to say is stop complaining because you don’t have any better ideas than this and you are constantly using the products that the oil and gas industry provides you with so quit being a hypocrite and get on board for the future of this country.
Hey Mr Frac rural PA, thanks for ruining my life! I don’t like breathing diesel fumes and benzene, and i hate living next to a 500,000 radioactive frac waste pit. You and your kind are destroying everything we love and have worked so hard for. Renewables are the way to go, there can be clean jobs and and it IS possible. you’re all neanderthals.
I don’t know that they’ve kicked anyones ass either Bill, but these seem to be largely communities of older people, simple farming folk, and country kids who didn’t pursue much education. People lacking the skills to organize themselves and share information. It looks like they’ve done quite a good job despite not even having real internet acces in many of these areas, and with no precedent for this type of organization.
I think reasoning like yours works well in rural russia and the arab states, where the majority are basically still pesant classes. but this is america, and with the increasing reach of the internet and the common man’s increasing access to information I don’t think heavy development of these resources will continue to happen in peoples backyards. People are just too smart for that. This does not happen in developed areas and soon it won’t happen in our countries lowest income rural areas either.
Much of the reason these places are disadvantaged and need economic help in the first place is the legacy of extractive industry, that built coal and logging towns and then abandoned them a decade later once the resource was depleted. The companies and jobs moved on, and all those people were left behind in a place without a natural economy.
There is no data available that supports the gas industry’s claims that fracking is safe. Communities fracked a decade or two back have never been revisited to determine if the toxic crap left in the ground has migrated up to the water table.
Victims are silenced for the price of having barely potable water delivered to their house once their well has gone bad; count the water buffaloes around neighborhoods where gas drilling is nearby to get a handle on just how widespread the contamination from gas drilling really is.
Peoples lives have been ruined and their property rendered worthless from nearby gas drilling operations. The myth you speak of involving “safe & responsible” gas drilling is just that – a myth!
If your indusrtry has data to support their claims, then cough it up. Otherwise, shut up and go away!
Regardless of what you believe about water effects, fracking is a very high carbon process that causes this kind of thing:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/methane-discovery-stokes-new-global-warming-fears-shock-as-retreat-of-arctic-releases-greenhouse-gas-6276278.html
Fracked gas is more like coal or tar sand or shale gas in its total environmental impact. Entirely negative. It is not a clean fuel.
The people “working” in this field are lying to you. Don’t believe a single word they say. They’re liars by nature.
Bill you are are an eco-terrorist and traitor to our Republic! Fracking for export of this gas is a crime against the American people. Call my program to debate if you have the courage! The Frack Report on WFTE FM. Live Weekday mornings at 7:30 AM until 8. Re-broadcast at 7PM 570-212-9383
I think the key point of this article is to notice the concentration of the industry about it’s image and not it’s environmental and ecological impact. There’s blatant, incontrovertible proof that the shale and natural gas industry are solely responsible for ground water contamination and other environmental atrocities world wide. People are beginning to wake up and all the industry is trying to do is find a way to lull them back to sleep. Please pardon the analogy, but I believe it truly portrays the situation we’re facing. I can think of no better proof than that of the credited film “Gasland” by Josh Fox. (Found here: http://www.gaslandthemovie.com)
The issue that remains for most is how do we break our dependency on foreign oil? A scientific surge towards finding renewable, sustainable energy production. It’s not an ideology, it’s an honest fact. Just one person’s opinion.
If only we had some Leadership in the White House and Congress – and a Supreme Court that wasn’t quite so committed to their industry patrons, we could start solving these problems.
The main obstacle we face in waiting for the government to act is that they and all their buddies make so much money sending our young people overseas to kill other people, that they just wont STOP the WARS!
STOP these never-ending WARS and START funding massive development of wind turbines.
Develop and install effective solar and thermal panels. Develop superior batteries.
Build bicycle lanes so people can feel safe riding their bikes and other wheeled contraptions on our public roadways rather than driving. Make it more affordable to be GREEN and more expensive to use fossil fuels.
At this point, the cleanest fuel we have is coal, and that is just “nuts”!!
In the year 2011 and that’s all we’ve got?!
We have the power, the technology, the desire, and the NEED to break the chains of petroleum products and crude, which are destroying our air, water and soil – we just HAVE to get Big Oil, Coal and Gas OFF capitol hill.
*** Nice dream, eh?
Can someone send some links to legit studies on the environmental impact of fracking that are truly independent. neither financed/published by the industry or by opposition. Despite all i’ve seen of the debate, i haven’t seen much of the actual science.
Here is a Propublica.org report that reviews the Duke University Peer Reviewed article that talks about Dimock PA and water contamination. I know that the industry hails its non-reviewed scientist, who never see scrutiny among their peers, are always right.
I have been searching for untainted, objective science for the past six years. Much of what is happening in PA is based on industry claims and enthusiastic projections promulgated by the geosciences department at PSU. Government looks for an economic miracle. PSU received $88 million for an ice hockey rink after East
Resources founder and PSU graduate Terence Pergula sold his Marcellus interests to Shell Oil for $4.5 billion. Spin, shuck, and jive prevail – I’ve been treated to enough fantastic tales to last a lifetime.
[...] of the Wall Street Journal. Tisha Conoly-Schuller, CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, told an industry conference yesterday that “the public is skeptical of anything we say. … The public does not [...]
We don’t need industry spin. They are destroying our nature, threatening our drinking water, dress up our landscape with drilling rigs, pressing the last molecules of gas from our planet, and reducing the value of our homes. We don’t need lies, damned lies and industry-paid university professors selling us fracking.
It isn’t even profitable, many of these companies are dressing up their revenues. It is not going to save us from energy shortages; shale and coal bed methane are a lost cause.
Simply do one thing: stop putting your money into more spin and fossil fuel. Start investing in sensible, environment-friendly solutions.
Thanks for the laughs, Ms. Conoly-Schuller!!
Who’s the extremist now, when, as you say, “90%” of the people are AGAINST what you are trying to force down their throats? Talk is cheap.
I especially like how your’ “talk” doesn’t ONCE mention your horrible safety record, or any intentions or desires to make your industry safer – but, rather, you focus on changing the “message” so the “nuts” will shutup.
Very fiscally prudent of you. That didn’t cost a nickel, and ’cause you say it’s so, we should all just step in line and march to your “new” messaging… I don’t think so! Quick! Trot out the woman, she will get that message across where old, fat, rich, white men can’t. How does it feel being a puppet? I hope it pays well.
Here’s the BIG picture. Even if fracking were a completely benign process (it’s not), it does not matter. We need to loose the fossil fuels because our planet is being destroyed. This is not the earth that most of us were born into anymore. Fossil fuels are primarily responsible for this. It’s time to shift our attention to alternative energies. Helloooo. We’re not in Kansas anymore. Read Bill McKibben’s “Eaarth”. http://www.billmckibben.com/eaarth/eaarthbook.html
It’s too bad that the readers of this blog are nothing more than hypocrites. Yes, ban fracking, eliminate virtually 90% of future production of natural gas. What on earth do you think heats your houses? Stay cold in the winter!
To anyone who says the industry’s safety record is horrible, take a look at the numbers dopes on national statistics sites and see for yourself that the oil and gas industry (just like any other industry) has been improving their methods and safety procedures for decades. It’s an industrial process people, and there is never a safety record for ANY industry.
Tisha Schuller is right in one respect, people are emotional, as can be seen in these comments and blog posts. It’s too bad you can’t balance emotion with rationality. What is your solution to the energy scene? Renewables? HA! get real, if renewables alone could power the needs of this nation, then our electricity bills would be 10x higher, not to mention that intermittent power is needed when they fail to meet electricity demands, AND THEY WOULD FAIL ELECTRICITY DEMANDS. Natural gas is here, it’s cheap, and on the industrial level, it is one of the cleanest operations for energy sources.
All I can say emotional hypocrites is this, GET REAL, NOT EMOTIONAL
What about Dimock?
Natural gas is producable from any biological waste. We are dumping millions of tons into landfill where the methane generated drifts into the atmosphere and much of it reaches the ozone layer too expose us to UV radiation; a far more potent killer than carbon dioxide.
Fracking opens up numerous escape routes for Methane which bypass the well heads.
It is time to use the only controled form of methane production, biodigesters. Based in farming areas they can supply local needs and fertilise the fields with the residual waste. THERE IS NO TIME LIMIT TO THIS PRODUCTION. The organic improvement to agriculture is another bonus.
All the infrastructure can be devised to fit neatly into what we still have left of our natural environment.
Thanks for the inspirational name-calling. T Yee’s bully pulpit is so high, he/she has chosen even to disregard Ms. Conoly-Schuller’s recommendations for a more respectful dialogue with the opposition. T Yee and Mr. Williamson do nothing to dispel the gas-industry’s well-earned reputation for arrogance, lies and complete disregard for the well-being of the communities whose resources they wish to extract.
How about some sources for the national statistics to which you refer about recent improvements in the safety of the shale gas industry’s methods and procedures?
Here’s a statistic for you from the Scranton Times-Tribune: “During the first eight months of 2011, 65 Marcellus wells were cited for faulty casing and cementing practices – one more than was recorded in all of 2010. Casing and cementing violations do not necessarily indicate that gas has migrated or will migrate into drinking water supplies, and methane is present in many water wells in Pennsylvania from natural pathways unrelated to gas drilling. But in the three dozen instances when methane has migrated into water supplies from gas wells in Northeast Pennsylvania, cement flaws have been identified by state regulators as a primary pathway for the gas.” (Read more: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/dep-inspections-show-more-shale-well-cement-problems-1.1205108#ixzz1YycHQDKu)
So why don’t we hear about the shale gas industry meeting to discuss ways to improve this abysmal record, to improve quality and design of casings, to explore ways to minimize impacts on communities, to research less toxic chemicals for use in fracking? Why is it that the shale gas industry spends so much time organizing and attending conferences aimed solely at supporting and furthering its mission: to extract shale gas with the lease possible cost (or attention to safety) and to sell this gas to the highest bidder (please see numerous stories about converting Dominion Energy’s Cove Point, Maryland LNG import facility into an EXPORT facility.)
Lastly, it is fact, not an emotional conclusion, that the US has historically subsidized fossil fuel producers. If renewable sources had a seat at the same tables as these entrenched industries, the science required to make renewables more viable would be further along. Unfortunately, if we ramp up the corporate welfare currently being requested by the shale gas industry, and continue to allow its extraction without regard for its impacts, our children will be the ones to deal with the true cost of shale gas production.
I am rational, conservative (as in preserving my pure spring water and pristine farmland), waiting to receive sound evidence which will allow me to sign a gas lease in good conscience. Much of the emotion surrounding this issue has been generated by the deceptive practices of gas industry representatives. If the industry has nothing to hide, its interests would be better served by transparent negotiations and frank discussion of issues, twin ideals which are notably lacking in the Marcellus sweet spot where I live.
Gas fracking is dead end. Latest report from dept of energy says 6 years of us consumption is the total gas available in Marcellus. By the way, the reports consistently trend down over the years. If this were a project where I work, it would have been cancelled. What has to happen to end this spectacularly stupid pursuit of short term profit? The devil rising from a freaked well? Blood squirting from the ground? Locusts? We will destroy the entire country for a few years of methane? Please wake up and stop this complete stupidity before we solve the Fermi paradox.
[...] Shale Gas Industry Insider: We Are Losing the Messaging War on Fracking – Natural Gas Watch.or…. Share this:Like this:LikeBe the first to like this post. [...]
If the gas industry want some loud voices in their favor maybe they should stop ripping off the people they got to sign leases at ridiculously low prices and then try to force more years onto the lease with this “force majoure” crap. How is anybody supposed to trust the industry when their fist step was to come in and rip everyone off! You think if all these people were paid the fair and correct prices they would be standing idly by and let the opposition get away with their propaganda? I have a lease and could care less that it is environmentally safe. I just don’t trust the industry to treat their source of land access fairly.
I’m pleased to be among the 90% of the population that are nuts . I wonder if the speaker ever listens to herself ? probably not as she is so full of herself . I attended a meeting last evening that detailed how one community ALL lost well water – some wells drained completely while others were contaminated during an initial gas well fracking job . And that was in Canada – not Pennsylvania or Wyoming or Texas or Colorado or Alberta .. Too many in the industry are just blind to the reality the rest of us have to live with .
Hey! Alberta’s in Canada!
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[...] Shale Gas Industry Insider: We Are Losing the Messaging War on Fracking he shale gas industry has had its collective ass kicked, and kicked hard, by Gasland and others opposed to hydraulic fracturing and needs to redefine its core messages to defuse a burgeoning negative public perception of the controversial drilling technique, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association (COGA) said today. [...]
[...] the natural gas industry acknowledges the film's success: "What we've seen in the last few years, and I hope it's peaking, is a completely heightened public [...]
Then don’t fill up gas at pump or live bye a busy road… U breath in the same materials dumbasses anywhere yougo. It’s coming get ready
[...] the natural gas industry acknowledges the film’s success: “What we’ve seen in the last few years, and I hope it’s peaking, is a completely [...]
Instead of trying to be “clever,” here are two recommendations for the industry and Tisha Conoly-Schuller:
1) Lead by example: Identify gas industry execs (senior managers) who have hydraulic fracturing operations on their property near their home. After all, hydraulic fracturing is benign, according to the industry. I suspect you won’t be able to identify many — if any. The industry needs to acknowledge that its leaders are the new NIMBYs. They want these operations on YOUR property, not on THEIR property. What message does that send about how benign this process is?
2) Do what you say you do: The Marcellus Shale Coalition is an industry group of 40 U.S. & foreign gas and oil companies (e.g., Chesapeake Energy, Range Resources, Anadarko Petroleum, EQT, Williams, etc.). Last October, it announced “Guiding Principles” with great fanfare including a media tour with former PA governor Tom Ridge, apparently paid $900,000 to be a strategic advisor. As the industry Coalition says on its website: “We recognize that to succeed in business, we not only embrace these principles, we live by them each and every day. This will be our legacy.” Reference link: http://marcelluscoalition.org/about/guiding-principles/
Despite the stated importance of these principles, the industry has declined to respond to questions about what specifically this means its members do at drill sites. For example, the second Guiding Principle says: “We implement state-of-the-art environmental protection across our operations.” As the gas industry should know, words mean things.
For example, “We implement” is present tense — the industry doesn’t say it hopes to implement. “State-of-the-art environmental protection” is the best available technology. It includes closed loop systems, vapor recovery units, zero emission glycol dehydration units, pneumatic no-bleed valves, and more. “Across our operations” means everywhere — it doesn’t say across some of our operations. For months the industry has declined to answer this question. So it starts a conversation and walks away from it. Typical behavior for an industry that only answers questions it likes.
We conclude that this are not guiding principles, but guiding platitudes. Check out this op-ed piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11041/1124307-109.stm
Glad to have an adult conversation with gas industry execs on this subject.
[...] Industrie zu verbreiten. Die Helmholtz Institute werden zu 90 Prozent vom Bund finanziert.Quelle: http://www.naturalgaswatch.org/?p=939 Allgemein, Frackwatchfaktencheck, fracking, industrie← Übersicht der politischen Initiativen [...]
[...] NaturalGasWatch.org, which was the “official blogger” of the event, quoted Conoly-Schiller in saying, “people that like South Park are our audience.” She then went on to say that one way of tapping into that audience is through social media. “Conoly-Schuller closed her remarks by urging each of the executives to get on Facebook,” reported Natural Gas Watch. [...]
[...] concerned, responsible and even helpful. But the efforts have been a complete failure and the public simply does not trust anything the industry has to say, as one executive lamented to a recent gathering of peers. Another [...]
[...] Shale Gas Industry Insider: We Are Losing the Messaging War on Fracking – Natural Gas Watch.or…. : Pressespiegel International, Zitate var addedComment = function(response) { [...]
[...] President & CEO of the Colorado Oil & Gas Commission, concede public opinion is decidedly against hydraulic fracturing. She credits Gasland with swaying public [...]
[...] this is one of those times. Of course, it helps that the author used in his lead material from a story that broke here on NaturalGasWatch.org, but even if that weren’t the case, this piece would [...]
[...] natural gas industry has credited Fox with singlehandedly changing the debate around the issue of fracking, a controversial natural [...]
[...] Shale Gas Industry Insider: We Are Losing the Messaging War on Fracking [...]
[...] opposes stronger regulations. Recently an industry official was quoted as saying that: ”The public is skeptical of anything we say. The favorable perception of the oil and gas industry polls at seven [...]
[...] prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html prwatch.org/search/node/knowlton naturalgaswatch.org/?p=939 [...]
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[...] premiered in 2010 to widespread critical acclaim. Industry apologists and critics alike also credited the film with almost single-handedly framing the debate around hydraulic fracturing — or [...]
[...] premiered in 2010 to widespread critical acclaim. Industry apologists and critics alike also credited the film with almost single-handedly framing the debate around hydraulic fracturing — or [...]
[...] 2011, Tish Conoly-Schuller, keynote speaker “Enhancing Shale Oil & Gas Development Strategies” conference in Denver, Colorado said the movement is [...]
[...] 2011, Tish Conoly-Schuller, keynote speaker “Enhancing Shale Oil & Gas Development Strategies” conference in Denver, Colorado said the movement is [...]
The truth is coming out. I’m just one organic farmer in western PA who made a PowerPoint calling for a moratorium on fracking. To date there have been over 4,000 views of that PPT. I’ve got that posted on my farm website’s front page along with an easement (named after my late wife) that I put on my property that asserts and recognizes the Rights of Nature and prohibits any industrial activity like fracking that threatens natural communities and ecosystems present at the surface or below the surface of my farm. Both are one click away here: http://paradisegardensandfarm.com/ Down the road from me another small organic farmer has taken the trouble to compile a list of over 1,300 reports of people, animals, water and land being harmed by gas drilling. http://pennsylvaniaallianceforcleanwaterandair.wordpress.com/the-list/ The gas industry will not be able to hold back a grassroots movement of resistance that is growing in strength every day.