The op-ed “Fracked gas in Appalachia won’t help Ukraine, but will hurt our communities” (March 8, TribLIVE) by Anaïs Peterson of Earthworks, attacking Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry and their employees — our neighbors and community members — should come as no surprise.
A bit about Earthworks: This extreme anti-energy organization receives millions of dollars from deep-pocketed foundations. Many of these tax-exempt foundations have deep financial interests in overseas assets, including Russia. Earthworks also created and funds Beyond Extreme Energy, an entity whose sole mission is to organize protests against conventional energy sources and disrupt their operations and employees’ ability to work.
And now, they do the bidding of Putin. Every time we import Russian energy, we export American dollars that fund the bombs and the missiles which drop daily on the Ukrainian people. Opposing the ramp-up of America’s energy resources to aid our European allies, while reducing the crushing inflationary costs that are hitting the pocketbooks of every American, defies common sense, and basic human decency.
Americans are smarter than Earthworks wants to give us credit for. We are seeing in real time what depending on your adversaries to keep the lights on or heat your home can do. Russia has weaponized its control of Europe’s energy supplies. It is offensive — and anti-American — that an entity like Earthworks, which bathes in the benefits of being a tax-exempt organization, would aid Putin’s propaganda ground offensive right here on our shores.
Mark D. Caskey
Canonsburg