Who Has the Youth, Has the Future (Part I: Fracking for Children)

I have not yet seen the energy education curriculum that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has contracted Scholastic to publish, but in the wake of the article in the New York Times about internal natural gas industry worries about hydro-fracking, I am struck by another emerging development about fracking: A campaign to equate all the legitimate benefits of natural gas with the unconventional and controversial methods of hydraulic fracturing to extract it, but mostly, to target elementary school students with this campaign.

An article in last week’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes Chesapeake Energy’s efforts on this front (Chesapeake Charlie!), as well as the coloring book being widely distributed by the Canadian company Talisman Energy’s “Good Neighbor Program” at community picnics in Pennsylvania. “Talisman Terry’s Energy Adventure,” a “friendly Fracosaurus” explains the safety and virtues of hydro-fracking.

I have reviewed books in the past, but never a coloring book. So, in the spirit of moving to this genre, here is my 84 second review of the coloring book, along with images of the entire book itself. My thanks to Sean Bender (Harvard, class of 2014) for his excellent assistance with crayons, scissors, paste, and a few other things.

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The following video features highlights from an actual event sponsored by Encana Natural Gas.

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The full video can be found here.

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