There’s been a lot of backlash in the media and public arena against a letter that appeared in the Daily Camera and additional comments from the author advocating violence against natural gas workers.
But the one constituency that has remained mysteriously silent are the environmental groups who have whipped the public into a frenzy to oppose the industry.
They’ve sat by silently, perhaps even approvingly, while fractivists call gas workers rapists who live in man camps.
And it’s not just the “mainstream” environmentalists who appear approvingly silent while the rhetoric boils over, but Democrats in the state House.
Dan Haley, CEO and president of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association, writes about it in the Denver Post:
While the claim raised eyebrows with many people in the room, sadly, it went unchallenged. The individual was not gaveled down, told they were out of line, or told to stick to the facts. The committee hearing went on as if this type of public discourse is now so commonplace it is simply accepted.
This was one of many over-the-top, unnecessary and heated charges occurring at the Colorado statehouse this year, lobbed at the tens of thousands of men and women employed by the oil and gas industry.
During another committee hearing, a witness called oil and gas employees “meth heads” and even accused employees of stealing and stripping our own copper wiring to make money to buy more meth. Again, the claim went unchallenged from our elected leaders who heard it.
Eco-terrorism is no stranger in Colorado, where activists set Vail Mountain on fire to save a lynx. Fanning the flames of extremists by allowing this rhetoric to go on unchallenged is just as dangerous as actually pointing a gun at a worker in the energy industry.
It’s time for someone on the liberal left to challenge it, and condemn these statements.
