Coalition Holds Rally to Counter 'Don’t Frack'
WARREN, Ohio -- For the first time Monday, the Mahoning Valley Coalition for Job Growth and Investment held a counter-demonstration to rebut opponents of hydraulic fracturing. Some 40 members of the skilled building trades unions lined up on the west side of Mahoning Avenue NW across from Courthouse Square where 200 protesters were conducting their rally, “Don’t Frack Ohio 2.”
The majority of the skilled tradesmen on the sidewalk belong to Local 935 of the Laborers International Union of North America - they wore their orange LiUNA T-shirts to identify their affiliation – and Local 18 of the Operating Engineers union. (Local 18 represents all of Ohio except Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties, represented by Local 66.)
While the Operating Engineers have held counterdemonstrations elsewhere in the state – including Athens and Mansfield – says Michael Bertolone, Monday was their first time in the Mahoning Valley. Bertolone is Local 18 business representative over energy projects. “We have hundreds [of operating engineers] working on pipeline construction and [processing] plant construction,” Bertolone said when asked why he had come here from Cleveland.
The tradesmen and leaders of other building trades locals held placards that read “Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!” and “Energy Jobs Now.”
The backs of the T-shirts the members of Local 935 read, “Jobs for Our Families. Energy Independence for Our Valley & America” beneath an American flag.
An anti-fracking protestor dressed in a clown suit, clown makeup and wearing a red nose crossed Mahoning Avenue to stand among the building tradesmen. Her sign” “This clown is glad she doesn’t live in Ohio.”
She identified herself as Lisa DeSantis, a resident of New Castle, Pa. “I’m making fun of Ohio because they take all our [fracking] waste,” she informed a reporter while union members tried to disrupt the interview by blowing horns fueled by compressed air in aerosol cans.
She was especially upset, she said, because of the waste illegally dumped by Ben Lupo’s D&L Energy into the Mahoning River that flows into Pennsylvania. Jeered by a couple of union members, DeSantis retorted, “I’ve got the facts.”
DeSantis continued, noting she has taken part in other protests – in Washington, D.C., in Mercer, Pa., and in Youngstown -- before allowing, “The truth lies somewhere in-between” the opposing camps’ claims. DeSantis is encouraged to continue her support of anti-fracking efforts, she said, because “People are starting to join us. Mothers that care. And radiation. People are waking up to the dangers of the radiation [that fracking] waste brings.”
The drivers of the cars and pickup trucks that drove by honked often in support of the union tradesmen that includes business agents from Local 8 of the bricklayers union, Local 396 of the Plumbers and Pipefitters union, Local 573 of the electricians union, Local 171 of the carpenters union and the painters union.
Anticipating the Don’t Frack Ohio rally would be over by 2:30, the organizers of the coalition for growth scheduled their speakers to meet with the media inside the Log Cabin at that time. (While the Don’t Frack rally was 100 to 150 yards distant, its speeches and music were inaudible on the sidewalk in front of the Log Cabin.)
About 1:50, Eric Planey of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber invited the union members and press inside to hear the coalition’s response to Don’t Frack at 2 p.m.
Acting as emcee, Planey stood before a table; banners on both sides read, “Over 230,000 Ohio jobs are supported by the oil and natural gas industry.”
Noting that Regional Chamber “has been as welcoming as possible for the oil and gas industry,” Planey predicted a day in the not-so-distant future when natural gas will be the primary fuel used to generate electricity and power trucks and cars. Burning natural gas results in less carbon dioxide and is more efficient than the fuels in wide use today, although he did not name them.
He praised BP for creating wealth in Trumbull County as a result of the leases it signed with landowners.
And he reminded his audience of 50, “Across the street is democracy and we have to respect that. But [they] have to respect the facts” about the safeguards the oil and gas industry has employed in its drilling operations and in building infrastructure to pipe and process the natural gas and oil.
Speaking next was Don Crane, president of the Western Reserve Building and Construction Trades Council, the umbrella group for the 6,000 union skilled tradesmen. He noted how Vallourec has led the way in making the oil and gas industry a source of “income and pride” for the Mahoning Valley. “We made it through times of difficulty,” Crane said. “It’s time to continue our recovery.”
Not scheduled but speaking next were Trumbull County Commissioner Frank Fuda and Warren President of Council-elect Jim Graham. Both offered their unwavering support for the oil and gas industry.
Fuda, just returned from Texas, told of how the regions he visited are flourishing and resident have jobs because of the energy exploration there. Here in Ohio, he noted, are hundreds of new jobs resulting from the Utica shale. “There’s no reason to protest these jobs,” he stated.
To the protesters’ concerns over the safety of the water supply and worker safety, Fuda said he shares their concerns. “We want it to be safe and I’m sure [state] laws make it safe,” he said. The energy companies “are happy to have rules to follow.”
Graham reminded his audience, “Those people [in Courthouse Square] have every right to be there. They don’t have the right to tell us how to restrict jobs. … I have total confidence in national, state and local governments ensuring [water] safety.”
Mayor Doug Franklin, billed to speak, arrived at 2:25, 15 minutes after Planey and others concluded their brief remarks.
After posing for photographs with the counterdemonstrators, he read his remarks and noted, “I’ve been waiting for this day for some time. The jobs and opportunities [oil and gas] bring to this region are why.”
Twice hailing his city as ”the new Texas,” Franklin said he sensed an optimism because “oil and gas is our catalyst” to recovery, if not prosperity. The investment by the oil and gas industry, the mayor said, “is about more than jobs. It’s about the recovery of our economy, about energy independence for America. …
“My dream is that in a short time, every [semi tractor trailer] will be powered by natural gas,” he continued.
Last, the mayor expressed confidence that the energy companies will extract the oil and natural gas in Trumbull County safely: “I have every confidence that the major oil companies are taking every precaution” and “I welcome the naysayers” to return and see their worries are without basis.
The Don’t Frack rally continued and the members of the Laborers and Operating Engineers remained on the sidewalk, Fuda having donned an orange T-shirt over his suit coat to show his support of Local 935.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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