Bob Ford is running for Morgan County Commissioner. This time as a Republican.
And a hot issue is whether the county should push back against big energy corporations who are using a risky technology – hydraulic fracturing – to release natural gas embedded in shale beneath the surface in West Virginia.
When asked at the Apple Butter Festival in Berkeley Springs this afternoon whether he was for or against fracking in Morgan County, Ford waffled.
“I don’t want to say I’m for it,” Ford said. “But I’m definitely not against it.”
Ford predicted “it’s not going to happen here in Morgan County.”
“It would be like coal mining here in Morgan County. It’s not going to happen.”
But Ford acknowledged that companies are buying natural gas leases around the county.
And he said that if done right, he’d be okay with fracking.
“As far as fracking itself, if it’s done in the right place, if the rules are followed that the DEP and the EPA sets forward, who am I to question it?”
Ford said that he’s in favor of strict regulation of fracking.
“If we had a tract of ground that it made sense on, and it was done in the proper manner, I don’t think I would have a problem with it,” Ford said.
Can fracking be done safely?
“I think it can be done safely,” Ford said. “And I think it has been done safely in the past. However, I do think that it’s a business that when people do it, if people are careless, you can cause a lot of problems. You’ve got to have your head in the sand if you think for one minute that you can’t create problems doing something like that. That is where we depend on our government to do the right thing, pass the right regulations, have the right people do the inspections and do it properly, like any other business.”
As Bob Ford says, “we depend on our government to do the right thing.”
And when he was in government – that is, when he was County Commissioner – he promoted an incinerator company for a county that has a reputation for clean water and clean air.
And much of the county’s economy relies on that reputation to bring tourists to the healing waters, fresh air, and natural beauty of Morgan County.
A citizen uprising beat back Ford’s ill advised incinerator plan.
Just as a citizen uprising has put a moratorium on fracking in New York State.
Yes Bob, we depend on our government to do the right thing.
An incinerator was the wrong thing when you were Commissioner.
And fracking is the wrong thing now that you are running again.
Yes Bob we depend on our government to do the right thing.
But you didn’t do the right thing with the incinerator.
And you are not doing the right thing now by saying you would favor fracking in Morgan County.