PA's Dept. of Homeland Security Shared Oil-Shale Protester Info With Companies

Western Pennsylvania's shale oil deposits have lately attracted interest not only from companies who have been extracting some of that oil, but from locals who object to what they perceive as sharp dealing by the companies involved, favorable treatment by the state government, and environmental degradation as a result of the extraction. Some of the most visible of those protesters, it turns out, have been tracked (including "Web traffic") by Pennsylvania's own Homeland Security department, and that information about them has been shared not only within the department, but with the oil companies themselves. Homeland Security director James Powers defended the information shared with the oil companies as part of a triweekly bulletin, saying "We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies."

Comments

Gasland

[DeadCatX2]

This isn't new. There are youtube videos of the water coming out of people's kitchen faucet catching on fire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRZ4LQSonXA

The process to remove natural gas and oil from shale is extremely complicated. Many companies won't even tell you what chemicals they use; they claim it's a "trade secret". They tell you that everything's okay, but you know for a fact that some of that cocktail they're pumping into the ground simply must be a carcinogen. And if they're drilling on your land, and you get your water from a well (and that's a lot of people in western PA), then you better believe that their fracking chemicals (hydraulic fracturing) are leeching into the local water table.

Naturally, there are also plenty of loopholes in the regulations to make sure that Corporate America can continue to rape and plunder low-life commoners like you and me.

For lots more information, go watch Gasland.

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/613/index.html

Re:Tell me again...

[youngone]

That would likely be true if The US were not just a one party state. Also have a look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism Take special note of this bit: "Fascists seek to organize a nation according to corporatist perspectives, values, and systems, including the political system and the economy." That's pretty much exactly what is happening here.

Full Circle

[Voline]

This is apropos because the Pennsylvania State Police began in the early 19th century as the private Iron and Coal Police of the mine and mill owners. The owners tired of paying for their muscle all by themselves and recruited the taxpayers of Pennsylvania to chip in by getting the State of Pennsylvania to ... what's the opposite of "privatize"? Publicize? Anyway, the State adopted the bosses' private security apparatus as a whole, changed its name to the State Police, and started to pay their salaries to do what they had been doing anyway: fighting the unions and communities that were struggling to improve wages and working conditions in the coal mines and steel mills of Pennsylvania.

This is all detailed in Kristian Williams's excellent history of the police in America Our Enemies in Blue .

Re:Those damn evil Republicans

[PopeRatzo]

James F. Powers, Jr, Director of Homeland Security for Pennsylvania, works for the energy industry. Since especially in Pennsylvania, the energy industry wrote every regulation that deals with coal, natural gas or oil, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the state's energy regulations required the release of personal information of anyone protesting fossil fuel development.

Further, here's the bio on Mr Powers:

From 2001 through mid 2006, Director Powers served as a Special Operations consultant with KWG Consulting of Waterford, Virginia; an adjunct Faculty Instructor with the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA; and a Senior Fellow with the Joint Special Operations University, United States Special Operations Command, Hurlburt Field, FL.

Prior to serving as a consultant and Senior Fellow, Mr. Powers served over 30 years as a career U.S. Army Special Forces officer attaining the rank of Colonel. His command and staff assignments comprised tours in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Korea, and Washington, D.C. In his last assignment on Active Duty, Colonel Powers served as the Director of Special Operations Studies, U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA.

The important part of this bio is the fact that from 2001 through 2006, Powers served as a "Special Operations" consultant with KWG Consulting of Waterford, Virginia. If you look up "KWG Consulting" you don't find much. A half-million dollar budget and "from 1-4 employees" and nothing more. However (and this part's important), KWG Consulting is affiliated with KWG Resources, a multi-national mining and energy conglomerate, that's heavily involved in coal, oil and gas pipelines and railroads that carry coal, oil and gas.

So, it appears we have a hot shot special forces colonel who took big money to sell his services to foreign corporate interests, got himself appointed to Pennsylvania's DHS (what a coincidence!) and is now working as a hit man for the fossil fuel industry.

The next time you want to argue with me when I say that corporations have become much more powerful than any national government in the world, remember this little story, all true. I believe the government of the United States, especially, has been replaced by corporate interests since at least 1980, and the stuff we see with elections and campaigns and political discourse is nothing but theater to keep us occupied while transnationals consolidate their position as the true government of the world. The only reason we still have something called a government here in the US is to provide an enforcement arm to the corporations and to keep some semblance of order to provide a conducive environment for corporate profits and growth.