Friday, January 21, 2011

BRIEF VIDEO CLIPS OF FRACKING "DEBATE" AT OAKWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL - JANUARY 20, 2011 - "A CIVIL AFFAIR"


UPDATE & REVISED 01/22/2011

The SCPR has put together a number of video clips of the Plain Township trustee/RonPonder-PointsToPonder/Representative Kirk Schuring sponsored debate of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas held at the Oakwood Middle School (located in Plain) last evening.

Reduced to its simplest terms, the debate boiled down to the oil and gas industry representatives (Tom Stewart, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, and Steve Grose, a Stark Countian formerly with Range Resources Corporation) and environmentalist advocates (Nadia Steinzor of Earthworks Oil & Gas Accountability Project and Dusty Horwitt of the Environmental Working Group in Washington, D.C.) agreeing to disagree on whether or not fracking was worth the risk of environmental damage.

The debate was ably moderated by WHBC NewsTalk 1480's Ron Ponder, host of Points to Ponder.

There was a hint, pre-debate, that there might be a confrontation between one of the chief organizers of the environmentalist side of the argument Christine Borello and Ponder as to who was going to be permitted to speak on behalf of the environmentalists.

However, Ponder, in his suave but firm style maintained control of the agenda of the debate and all went very smoothly.

A SCPR "hats off" to Ponder, Representative Schuring and the Plain Township trustees (principally Louis Giavasis) for organizing and hosting this very important discussion.

What follows is a "in their own words" video compendium of the various participants in the proceedings.


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