Railroad Commissioner Targets a Russian Threat
The Railroad Commission of Texas is talking an awful lot about Russia this summer.
Commissioner David Porter on Monday become the second of the state's three oil and gas regulators to raise concerns that Russia, looking to bolster its share of the global natural gas market, is waging a misinformation campaign against hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — the method of blasting apart shale to free up oil and natural gas.
Russia is the world’s second-leading natural gas producer, behind the U.S., and Texas is responsible for about one-third of U.S. output. Porter says that Gazprom — Russia's state-controlled natural gas company — is partnering with U.S.-based public relations firms to spread unsupported propaganda about the environmental and health risks of the practice of fracking.
Moscow's "apparent strategy includes funding anti-hydraulic fracturing environmental organizations, placing misinformation in the public, and even mass media propaganda — namely their assistance with the distribution of Gasland, an incredibly deceitful film about hydraulic fracturing in America,” Porter wrote in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry. The effort "has already resulted in the ban of hydraulic fracturing in many EU countries, and now, they have their sights set on the U.S.”
Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2014/09/08/railroad-commissioner-fears-russian-threat/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Surprise: Porter does not seem to have any evidence to back the accusation.
