Fracking activist must be subdued, says drilling company
In my book, Vera is a hero.
Vera Scroggins, you are hereby charged with conspiracy to commit free speech. How do you plead?
That seems to be the way a Susquehanna County battle over hydraulic fracturing (usually called fracking) will play out if a Houston gas-drilling company gets it way, which is usually what happens in Pennsylvania when that company is involved.
Cabot Oil & Gas Co. dragged Scroggins into court in October after the anti-fracking activist started making waves in that county, conducting tours to show how she thought Cabot was ruining the countryside and water resources.
The tours have attracted some people from New York State, where there has been a moratorium on fracking until there is a better idea of how much harm it causes. (Pennsylvania took the opposite approach, encouraging rampant tax-free drilling first, and then waiting until later to see how bad the damage was.)
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Cabot is one of the Texas and Oklahoma gas-drilling companies lovingly coddled by the administration of Gov. Tom Corbett — after they gave Corbett millions of dollars in "political campaign contributions."
Scroggins, 63, a retired nurse's aide in the tiny town of Brackney, was becoming more than a thorn in Cabot's side. She was more like a strident harpoon through corporate guts, so the company sicced its lawyers on her, accusing her of trespass.
An injunction was granted in October by Susquehanna County Judge Kenneth Seamans, banning Scroggins from setting foot on any Cabot property. Ordinarily, that would seem reasonable, but it included property under which Cabot held underground mining rights, not surface rights.
Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/carpenter/mc-pc-fracking-activist-20140327,0,5896081.column#ixzz2xGJtL1AW
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