My Silence and the BIG Lie

I’ve become a political activist, a fractivist to be specific. Thanks to Josh Fox, well actually it is thanks to his mother, Angela Monti Fox and the other 1,253 people who were arrested at the Tar Sands Action. 

When I received the email from Bill McKibben asking me to go to Washington, DC for an act of civil disobedience, I did not hesitate. I immediately made plans to get to DC for Labor Day weekend and be arrested. I object to the Keystone XL Pipeline on so many levels, but most importantly, on the fact that it is going through our heartland, our farmland, and puts our food supply at risk.

Months ago when someone asked me why I had been “silent” on the fracking issue I had to admit, I was not paying attention. Sure I had seen bits and pieces of Gasland, but I was still trying to figure out what to do with the boxes of Earth Mart inventory that were all over my house, porch and filling our basement.

I had been “hibernating," and this was the kick in the pants I needed. My Facebook rants were becoming tiresome even to me. Battering the conservative dogma just came naturally, after all, I was brought up in a family staunchly, patriotically blue, proud to be Democrats, and taught that public service, volunteering and taking part in local government are requirements to ensure and protect our way of life.

I came to realize that by remaining silent, I was giving my approval to what was happening. As I began to think about this, I received my second kick in the pants. Someone told me I was wasting my time, just posting rants, “do something."

And so I did. And I am. And I want to thank Emma Peabody, Jerry Carton, Richard Liston and everyone who has inspired, supported, and when needed, criticized me, for my actions, inactions and activism.

Ironically, as I have been growing into my new Fractivist self, we found out our house has a gas leak. Possibly for the entire six years we have lived here.

We were one of seven houses in Phoenixville Borough to lose power. No electric for four or five days. Another friend, Shai Perednik, suggested I check if gas was leaking from our stove. I was pretty sure it wasn’t but I wondered about the furnace and hot water heater. Might they have pilot lights that went out and were now leaking gas into our house?

And so I called PECO, and found out that in order to have them come to your house to check for a gas leak, you have to say you “smell gas." Which I didn’t, but I lied and said I did so they would come. And this is how I found out that the claim that you will know you have a gas leak by the smell is a BIG lie.

The first PECO employee that came to my house stated unequivocally that “there could not be a gas leak because there was no smell."

“Humor me." I said. "Let’s check the basement.”

And when he and I went down and he took out his Geiger counter, the beeping started. Slow at first, and then faster and faster. There was a gas leak. The PECO employee was shocked, saying “I can’t believe this. There is supposed to be a smell.”

When we came back upstairs, the Geiger counter went off again, my entire living space was filled with natural gas, the beeping was fast and loud, all along the living room ceiling, down the hall, right to my daughter’s bedroom. He immediately shut off the gas, and I opened every window.

I called a friend who was a plumber, and as luck would have it, he had left that day on vacation. So I turned to Facebook, and was lucky to get a name and he came the next day.

“There can’t be a gas leak. There is no smell, and there are no bubbles on the pipe.”

“Humor me,” I said. “PECO came and the pipe tested positive for a leak with a Geiger counter, as did my entire upstairs.”

And guess what he found? The pipe through which PECO was sending natural gas into my house was not “threaded." It was not even “finger tightened." The assurance that we, the public, are safe and will detect a natural gas leak because they, PECO, add a toxic substance that will give off a “strong rotten egg odor," is a BIG lie. You can’t smell natural gas. Ever. Natural gas is invisible, and odorless, and the “scent” they add? It dissipates.

After the leak was fixed I contacted PECO and asked them to come back and verify the leak was fixed and that there were no other leaks.

“Do you smell gas?” asked the PECO Customer Service Rep, “No, we never smelled gas.” “Well then you can’t have a leak and we only come if you smell gas.”

Okay, now I was angry. I called the PA Public Utility Commission and filed a complaint. So then PECO calls me frantic. They had been notified I smelled gas and they were going to “break down my door” because it was “extremely dangerous."

Luckily I got them on the phone and explained my complaint was that I had NEVER smelled gas, and yet we had a leak.

“But that is impossible," I was told yet again. "You would have smelled gas if you had a leak.”

“Humor me,” I said again. “I’d like to have my house checked again.”

And so the second PECO employee came to my house. “You can’t have leak, there is no smell.”

“Fine, I want you to check every pipe.”

And guess what, there was a second leak, IN MY FURNACE. So if I had turned on the heat, my house might have exploded. Would the smell have been evident then?

I have since been trying to get the PA Public Utility Commission to investigate the claim that the public health and safety is protected from natural gas leaks. It is a BIG lie. Natural gas is not safe, it is toxic. Natural gas leaks are not detectable. Every year people die due to carbon monoxide poisoning and natural gas explosions. And we are complicit in their deaths.

We have been silent long enough. We do not need more natural gas, we do not need to frack, anywhere. We need to stand up and stop this.

Luckily, my daughter and I did not die in a natural gas explosion. If we had, it would have been reported as a “tragic accident," except that is another lie. We are allowing a toxic and dangerous gas into our homes, and the oil and gas companies are making trillions of dollars while putting our lives in danger.

We need to refuse to accept this. I am converting my home to an electric furnace and hot water heater. I hope you will too. PECO offers a 100 percent wind option. This is how we start the Renewable Energy Revolution. One house at a time.

I will not be silent. I suggest that everyone with natural gas contact their utility. You will have to lie and say you “smell gas," but that is a small lie, and one that can help expose the BIG lie. Let me know what you find out. 

And please, join me and thousands of others on Oct. 21 at the Delaware River Basin Authority meeting. They want to frack the Delaware River Basin. We can’t allow that to happen.

There is a bill in committee, the FRAC Act, it will close the “Halliburton Loophole." Why did Halliburton need an exemption from the Clean Water Drinking Act? Why did ex-VP Dick Cheney get them one? Why are we trusting the company that sold sub-standard military equipment to our troops and who provided the shoddy construction of the Deep Horizon drill site, that fracking is safe?

Would you trust a pedophile to babysit your child? Giving Halliburton an exemption and trusting them to do the right thing is no different.

We have a responsibility to protect our children. And your silence puts them at risk. Don’t for a minute believe that Halliburton is going to protect our children, if they were interested in protecting our children, they would not have asked to be exempt from the Clean Water Drinking Act.