Jan 31, 2015 2 min read

As a resident of Washington County, I am outraged that somebody has allowed the beautiful rural neighborhood in which I live to become an industrial zone.

I can see two gas wells from my living room window and can hear the droning of a third. I’ve watched 100 trucks drive past my house in a single day. I see a half-dozen derricks, lit up like NASA launchpads, on my commute to work.

Who is responsible for this? Who sold us out? I thought government was supposed to protect the people from this sort of thing?

All I can think is that the politicians of Pennsylvania must be in the pockets of the energy companies, which are running roughshod over us Southwestern Pennsylvanians, destroying our environment, lowering our property values and jeopardizing our health.

I can’t believe there is such a desperate shortage of natural gas in this country that it was deemed necessary to allow gas drilling companies to come into neighborhoods where people live and work. To me, the mantra that “America needs to become energy independent” is just corporate propaganda.

Let’s be honest – the only reason this is being done is so that money can be made.

If a politician votes for this sort of thing, they should be willing to live near one of these industrial operations and drink the same water and breathe the same air as some of my neighbors.

This experiment has gone on long enough and the science is now in. We need to follow New York’s lead and put an immediate stop to fracking gas in Pennsylvania.

Christopher Marsh

Brownsville