Article about how fracker Range Resources plays hardball with anyone who gets in their way

[JPZenger]

http://www.fwweekly.com/2013/12/23/range-wars/

Excerpts:

"In one case in Pennsylvania, when paying off a family for making their property unlivable due to the air quality, Range and three other companies demanded a confidentiality agreement that not only included the standard “no discussion of this settlement” clause, but forbade the couple’s two young children from ever talking about the case and forbade the parents from ever attending any public meeting where oil and gas would be discussed.

In a Parker County case, Range sued not only a homeowner who claimed its work ruined his water wells but also the person he hired to test the levels of methane in his wells. And the homeowner’s wife. And then the company subpoenaed several years’ worth of e-mails from a blogger who had posted a video of the man setting his well water on fire.

... Matt Pitzarella, Range Resources’ director of corporate communications, told the attendees, “We have several former psy-ops folks that work for us at Range because they’re very comfortable in dealing with localized issues and local governments. Really all they do is spend most of their time helping folks develop local ordinances and things like that. But very much having that understanding of psy-ops in the Army and in the Middle East has applied very helpfully here for us in Pennsylvania.”

If you watch the movie Promised Land staring Matt Damon about a multi-billion dollar fracking company in PA, there is an interesting plot twist at the end that is consistent with this article.

[femmocrat]

1. We haven't dealt with Range Resources.

Chevron is all around us, though. We are the only ones in our rural "neighborhood" who did not sign. Still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. I have the greatest admiration for these people who refuse to be bullied.

They are being persecuted for their stand, and they are incredible for their fight.

I will never be convinced that non-disclosure agreements are Constitutional. And I will also be suspicious of any company that ever requires one (or hundreds), because it is obvious that said company has something to hide. Simple as that.