Nicole sorts through the “everyone’s an expert” mentality on natural gas development to get to the heart of who the real experts are on this topic (NOTE: It’s not the actors or politically correct academics).

There is a lot of information circulating in the media and on the internet about natural gas development. Much of this stems from meetings held around the area where so-called experts step up to the plate in an attempt to educate the public.  But, how do you determine when a worthwhile event is being held, if a speaker really is an expert and if that expertise is on the subject they are discussing?  Last week we looked at how to fact check anecdotal natural gas stories, and today we’ll take a look at how to do the same with the many meetings taking place on the controversial topic of natural gas development.

Everyone’s an Expert

Sometimes when I’m sitting at meetings about natural gas development I feel like I’m trapped in a Holiday Inn Express commercial. You know the one, “Are you a doctor?  No, but I slept in a Holiday Inn Express last night.” It sounds silly, but the reality is, anyone with access to the internet now-a-days seems  to claim they are experts. “Are you a petroleum engineer?  No, but I saw a video last night on fracking.”  They’re careful to use the slang term, of course, and apply it to all of natural gas development.

Having many “experts” leads, inevitably, to many meetings on the topic across Pennsylvania and New York — every night and often multiple events daily.  If it’s overwhelming for those of us whose jobs require staying up to speed on this frantic activity, it has to be close to impossible for the average citizen hoping to learn real information about natural gas development in their community. So, let’s take a look at two such meetings in our region and how one might evaluate the “experts.”  Here’s one:

Wilkes University Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, ...: Dr. Simona Perry, an applied anthropologist who works at the intersection of environmental science, community health, and public policy, will discuss “The Community and Environmental Health Implications of Shale Gas Development.” The talk will share some of the observations and analyses from on-going ethnographic fieldwork in Marcellus shale gas communities of the Endless Mountains in Pennsylvania from 2009-2012.

And, here is the other:

Wyoming Seminary, November 5, 7 PM: Geologist Dr. Larry Cathles from Cornell University will address the geology of the Marcellus Shale natural gas deposit. Cathles is a co-leader of the oil and gas thrust of the Cornell KAUST Program at the KAUST-­Cornell Center for Energy and Sustainability, and director of the Cornell Institute for the Study of the Continents.

Break It Down

So, how does one decide if it’s worthwhile to hear such folks, if there is a bias of which the attendee should be aware or if the speaker is even qualified to speak on the given topic?  Well, there are a few questions to be answered:

• Who is speaking?  What is their background expertise?
• Does the topic match the expertise of the speaker?  What qualifies this speaker to present on this topic?
• Who is hosting or sponsoring the event?  Is it an educational institution, the natural gas industry, an activist group, government, etc.?
• Who funded the research if it is a research based presentation?  What company or organization does the speaker work for or represent?

These are questions relatively easy to answer with a few minutes at your laptop.  Let’s take a look at how these presentations stack up.

Read more at: http://eidmarcellus.org/marcellus-shale/fact-check-natural-gas-expe...