Letter to the Editor: Extremely one-sided journalism in Rover pipeline article (Daily Telegram, Front page 5/11/2017)

Letter to the Editor: Extremely one-sided journalism in Rover pipeline article (Daily Telegram, Front page 5/11/2017)

Your staff writer Lonnie Huhman seems to be not interested to write a balanced and well informed article. Besides stating the facts about the progress and schedule of the pipeline construction his article reads as a propaganda piece from the PR department of Energy Transfer, who are behind the ROVER pipeline. There was nothing about the shocking list of recent leaks and spills during the pipeline construction in Ohio (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/05/10/pipeline-shut-down-after-18-leaks-and-a-2-million-gallon-spill-of-drilling-materials/). There was no word about the brave communities and property owners in Ohio and Michigan, who did not just give in when their municipalities and private property were hijacked under the false pretenses of public interest (eminent domain) but instead stood up against the goliath of corporate corruption and irresponsibility (http://marcellusdrilling.com/2017/02/rover-pipeline-files-eminent-domain-against-58-michigan-landowners/). Unfortunately, our local governments city – and county - were once more gutless and gave in to the false promises of economic benefits and trade unions fighting for a couple of temporary jobs that are mostly given to temp workers hired nationally and rarely locally. This is not new – Lenawee County and the City of Adrian are also quiet enablers of the massive factory farms or CAFOs in our county that pollute our River Raisin and contribute to Lake Erie’s algal blooms – all for the mighty dollar (http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2017/05/02/Tour-of-CAFO-sites-prompts-debate.html).

And finally, and probably most seriously, the article also missed any reflection that the construction of distribution channels for fracked natural gas from PA, OH and WV (with its known groundwater pollution, http://adrianoil.blogspot.com/2014/11/why-et-rover-pipeline-should-not-be.html) called ROVER and NEXUS, is highly immoral and unethical in view of man-made climate change that destroys the livelihood of millions of people by droughts, melting ice, and flooding, leading to massive migrations that threaten world peace. Business as usual for energy companies such as Energy Transfer in such times becomes truly a crime against humanity, especially as we have the technology at hand today to go to 100% clean renewables like sun, wind and water (http://thesolutionsproject.org/). I hope for a more balanced and truly informed journalism in Mr. Huhman’s next article.