CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Critics of a West Virginia University initiative to teach communities about Marcellus Shale drilling say the program is biased because it gets funding from the natural gas industry.
The program received funding from three energy companies: Chesapeake, Dominion and EQT. Dominion and Chesapeake gave $50,000 each. EQT contributed $25,000.
Launched late last year, the informational sessions feature presentations by a WVU geology professor, a natural gas attorney, and representatives of the state Department of Environmental Protection and the West Virginia Water Research Institute at WVU. More sessions are scheduled through May.
Sierra Club Outreach Coordinator Chuck Wyrostok said that the presentations are not inaccurate, but that they leave out certain aspects of Marcellus drilling. He called the program a "dog and pony show" for the industry.
"I think the general consensus is that the information that's being put out is fairly factual," he said. "The problem that we're finding with it is that there's a lot of error by omission, and it doesn't deal with the problems of Marcellus drilling at all."
Last month, the Sierra Club sent out an email to its members, asking them to contact the Extension Service and ask about the funding.
The West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association organized funding for the program and helped train some of the people involved in the information sessions, said Corky DeMarco, the association's executive director.
"We did this simply because we thought it was the right thing to do, to have someone out there answering the everyday questions of people in rural West Virginia," he said.
DeMarco said he doesn't understand why people would criticize the industry funding.
"No good deed goes unpunished," DeMarco said. "If the Sierra Club wants to train people on their way of doing things, or windmills or whatever the hell they want to do, tell them to put up the money."
If the group doesn't have the money, he said, "Tell them to have a bake sale."
The Marcellus Shale lies underneath parts of West Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. It is one of the world's richest natural gas basins. Marcellus drillers use a controversial practice called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," where millions of gallons of water are mixed with chemicals and pumped underground to fracture shale deposits.
The Extension Service is WVU's community outreach arm. Spokeswoman Ann Bailey Berry said the service started the Natural Gas Education Program because it had received so many calls from West Virginians who wanted to learn about Marcellus drilling.
They had questions about environmental impacts, leasing their land, and other issues.
"What we've tried to do is bring a pretty diverse group of players together in one room so that they can learn from each other," Berry said.
The gas companies did not review the curriculum for the information sessions, she said.
The Extension Service received many emails from Sierra Club members and plans to move the DEP presentation to the second spot in the 4-hour program, Berry said. Before, that was the last item on the agenda before the question-and-answer session.
The Extension Service modeled its program after one at Pennsylvania State University, Berry said.