BY TOM HESTER SR.
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Joan and Melissa weren’t there. Neither were Kim, Khloe and Kourtney. Carson Daly didn’t even show up. But the red carpet was rolled out in front of the Statehouse in Trenton Wednesday and anti-natural gas drilling activists handed out the first “Fracky” award to the American Petroleum Institute for what they charge is its role in endangering the environment.
The oil and gas industry association won, the activists declared, for “spinning the benefits of fracking (natural gas drilling) so hard that some people actually believe that gas is a bridge fuel to renewable.”
The other nominees for were Gov. Chris Christie (for delaying a ban on drilling in New Jersey), El Paso Pipeline Co., Cabot Oil & Gas, and Rep.Andy Harris (R-Md.). Each nominee was chosen because of some practice the protesters found objectionable.
The activists were also protesting one of several regional workshops by the American Petroleum Institute in Trenton discussing the development of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). The protesters handed “swag bags" to the public that were filled with information on the risks associated with fracking.
