Is the exploration of U.S. natural resources politically incorrect? Some people think so. Talisman Energy USA created a coloring book using their mascot Talisman Terry, as a giveaway at county fairs and similar events along the Pennsylvania/New York border, but Terry’s life as a diversion for kids was short-lived as eco-media pinheads sent Terry into the annals of history.
Talisman Terry, dubbed the “friendly Fracosaurus” was featured in a 24-page coloring book by Talisman Energy that detailed the process of extracting natural gas from rock formations in a process known as “fracking.”
Green nuts, opposed to anything involving carbon-based energy and fearing children might find energy exploration less hideous than their view campaigned to transform Terry from friendly into a villain. Talisman has now stopped distributing the coloring book; score one more for the small minds.
Talisman Energy spokeswoman Natalie Cox said the coloring book, “Talisman Terry’s Energy Adventure,” was created in 2009 by staff at Talisman’s headquarters in Calgary, Canada, as a giveaway for county fairs and other community events. Despite receiving not a single complaint from the public, the media targeted the book and Talisman gave in, stopping the publication within the past month.
“We’re going to take our company’s focus to where it should be,” Cox said. “We’re not going to continue to dispute the intent of a children’s coloring book. There’s two sides to every story, but it’s not something that we’re going to be disputing … it’s an activity book for young children.”
The coloring book explained the drilling process and depicts relatively unchanged landscapes “before drilling” and “after drilling.“ In one panel in the book Terry says, “During the drilling process, you may see a lot of big equipment, including a drill rig, large trucks, and tanks of water.”
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette discovered Terry on June 19 and suggested the coloring book contained messages that “drilling is smart, safe and American.” What an outrageous view! Exploiting U.S. resources is tantamount to raping the planet! Where’s Al Gore when we need him to make up some horrible stories about the destruction of mankind? Ed Markey will do.
Ultra-liberal U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., raised the terrible Terry controversy before an Energy and Mineral Resources and Agriculture Joint Subcommittee oversight hearing.
“The loveable dinosaur playfully promotes the benefits of natural gas and paints a picture of a magical world filled with smiling rocks and grinning animals,” Markey said in prepared remarks. “The problem is that unless you are a Fracosaurus named ‘Talisman Terry,’ this world doesn’t exist. For communities around this country the expansion of natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing has meant contamination of water supplies, loss of property value, deteriorating health conditions, dead livestock, and destruction of pristine forest and agricultural lands.”
Apparently Talisman Energy hasn’t been donating to Markey’s congressional campaigns otherwise he wouldn’t be using the standard eco-falsehoods often spread without any evidence to back up their claims. It’s much easier to throw out accusations than admit to your biased view that any exploration of American natural resources is something to be opposed. If the fracturing process was so environmentally unfriendly, where is the EPA? When does Markey plan to hold hearings?
Sometime back in the ‘80s a new technique known as political correctness reared its ugly head, and is now a key weapon in the arsenal of Liberals. It’s always been part of the Saul Alinsky plan to demonize your opponents, painting them as evil people that will do anything to make a buck, and then identify yourself as the good guy fighting the wicked corporations as in this matter. Why offer solutions when you can just point fingers as others?
If “fracking” is causing issues to the environment, the EPA, which has authorized the process, should get their expensive back-sides into gear. Yet the Liberals will never solve a problem if its shear existence is worth a few political points. Undoubtedly “fracking,” as in any energy extraction process, is not without its issues, but this isn’t 1960 where corporations could get away with dumping or destruction of the environment. If Talisman or any other company using this process is violating environmental regulations, pull their leases, fine them and shut them down. Of course, once the problem, if there is one, is addressed and corrected, the political value is greatly reduced.
Thank God Talisman pulled the coloring book. Imagine what would happen if a few Pennsylvania or New York kids got the wrong idea and started to believe that exploitation of our own resources was better than importing them from Hugo Chavez or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?