Like a lot of small communities, the village of Franklin Forks in northeastern Pennsylvania can be pretty confusing to outsiders, especially if they’re just passing through. It can be hard enough to find your way back to the Interstate, so trying to understand the inner workings of a tight-knit community in just a few days is a pretty tall order – especially when there’s controversy involved.

Not according to Bloomberg News, however, who recently traveled from Washington, D.C. to Franklin Forks to cover the controversy there over a lawsuit filed against a natural gas developer.

A false notion that Michigan communities can simultaneously ignore both science and state law to ban hydraulic fracturing seems to have taken root in certain parts of Michigan, including the part I call home. I live near West Bloomfield, Oakland County, where local officials recently enacted a six month moratorium resolution on oil and natural gas development and hydraulic fracturing within the Township while they study whether they can set aside the state and unilaterally regulate an industry that Michigan law says they can’t.

Earlier this year, researchers from Cornell University — Robert Howarth and Anthony Ingraffea — released a study that found emissions from shale gas production are worse than coal, based chiefly on the global warming potential (GWP) of methane. Of course, the study had more holes in it than big slice of Swiss cheese (read EID’s six-times-updated rebuttal here), with its conclusions resting on such a poor foundation that even a Sierra Club funded study found its premises to be flawed.

The professional activists who have an ideological objection to domestic energy production routinely portray the men and women of America’s oil and natural gas industry as reckless and even opposed to science. That’s not true, of course. The men and women of the oil and gas industry are thoughtful professionals who use science every day to responsibly bring energy that’s trapped deep underground to the surface, where it fuels our economy, creates jobs and supports our way of life.

We’ve pointed out here at EID on several occasions how the press has chosen all too often to cover hydraulic fracturing without a full grounding in the facts. Many times, this is borne not necessarily of a willingness to distort the truth, but there are unfortunately too many examples of the opposite being true. And for at least one reporter, a conflict of interest is actually being rewarded.

Last week I sent a letter to the New York Times following their publication of an op-ed by Sean Lennon. It’s unfortunate that they wouldn’t run my letter – especially given our experience as real organic farmers and how that experience contrasts the assertions made by Mr. Lennon.

Last week, Erie officials reached an agreement allowing two companies to move forward with oil and natural gas development in the town—ensuring the safe production of the state’s abundant natural resources while protecting the beauty, health and safety of the surrounding environment and communities. As a Denver Post editorial highlights, town officials should be commended for their action.