The days of unbiased reporting are long gone. When news outlets depend on deep-pocketed funders like the William Penn Foundation, they have to produce content to justify their compensation and keep the checks coming.
Yesterday, WHYY published an article that appeared to serve more as a mouthpiece for anti-pipeliners in southeast Pennsylvania than reporting (28 paragraphs devoted to glorifying several anti-pipeliners). The intent of the piece was to highlight the push/pull created by Pennsylvania’s energy industry for Democrats running for office.
Here is a little secret some might not know, the foundation of Pennsylvania’s economy is built upon the energy industry. Where was the first oil well struck? Titusville, Pennsylvania. Coal has provided over two centuries of economic benefit in Pennsylvania and today, the commonwealth is the second largest natural gas producer in the country. Thanks to this legacy, Pennsylvania has served as a manufacturing hub for the entire country. Many things change with time, but one thing that has not changed is the need for energy to fuel our daily lives.
One thing the WHYY article fails to highlight is what, if anything, these anti-pipeliners are for. It is clear that PennEnvironment dislikes what benefits us today from an energy perspective, but what do they want (strangely enough, they might want more DingDongs). More electric cars, wind turbines, solar panels??? What do these alternatives involve? More mining for cobalt, copper, nickel and other minerals, which environmentalists always support, right? More electric cars means we will need more charging stations, which means we will need more coal, nuclear, and natural gas to electrify the expanded fleet.
As much of the article is biased, in favor of the anti-pipeliners, WHYY fails to get the facts straight in the reporting. They forgot about the 1 million Pennsylvanian’s with homes powered by the Mariner East Pipeline and failed to acknowledge other offtakes where propane and ethane are available for commercial and residential delivery and use within the commonwealth. The anti-pipeliners like to misrepresent this fact and WHYY just simply followed their lead.
Our country has faced no shortage of energy nightmares this year through the deep freeze that paralyzed Texas and other southern states last winter and the recent hacking of the Colonial Pipeline. Both disrupted energy delivery that all Americans depend on. Natural gas has helped Pennsylvania power producers reduce CO2 emissions by 30%, which is not good enough for the anti-pipeliners.
Again, what are they for, other than more DingDongs?