To the editor:
Last Tuesday, Ohio University hosted “Shale and Beyond”, a conference that gave the impression of bringing all stakeholders to the table. Presenters congratulated participants for having a conversation that “speaks to the needs and opportunities that face all of us.” The implication was that communities have a voice and are being heard: we’re all in this shale play together.
A strong theme throughout the conference, however, was how to “mitigate any possible bust” after we welcome the “boom” of the shale industry into our communities. We were encouraged to develop sustainable enterprises “in the aftermath of the boom”. The message was acquiescence: this is a done deal, the deck is stacked, industry holds all the cards, so does it really matter who else is at the table? Stay here with the big boys, and drilling profits will trickle into your community and enrich us all, somehow. Get ready to be blessed with unimaginable amounts of money. Ready to play, the only game in town?
The foregone conclusion that we must bet our whole future on shale is a classic, poker-faced industry bluff. The supreme power and control wielded by the fossil fuel industry today is ominous, but not inevitable. Ohio University should not be pressured to help accomplish industry’s irresponsible agenda.
What have they been holding? Read ’em and weep:
1) Ohio is the cheapest place to drill and dump toxic and radioactive drilling wastes.
2) Communities and individuals have no right to prevent drilling anywhere in Ohio.
3) The fossil fuel industry is massively overvalued, with two thirds of its assets— known reserves—stranded and unusable (if they’re used, civilization is cooked).
4) Energy conservation and a switch to renewable energy, deployed with wartime urgency, could prevent catastrophic climate change.
5) Solar photovoltaic energy production creates over 32 jobs per megawatt, while shale energy production creates only 1.12 jobs per megawatt.
Industry has all the resources it needs to suppress the truth and manufacture consent. Forward thinking universities should be encouraging critical challenges to business as usual, and focusing intellectual and financial resources on innovation, not following a dying industry off a cliff.
Divesting from fossil fuels and shepherding the sustainable economic enterprises we have here now would be responsible and practical ways Ohio University could demonstrate true leadership at this critical moment in history. We are in this together. Deal me in.
Christine Hughes
owner, Village Bakery, Della Zona, and Catalyst Cafe,
Athens