Pennsylvania Democrat Policy Committee Chairman- Marcellus Shale Workers Are STD-Ridden Drunks Who Will Probably Kill Your Kids

The debate over drilling for Natural Gas in the Marcellus Shale took a nasty and downright odd turn this week when replying to am e-mail query about the impact of exploration and drilling on local communities from Capitolwire.com, Pennsylvania House Democrat Policy Committee Chairman Mike Sturla (D-Lancaster) offered the following reply:

“Also, aside from building roads so their trucks can get to drill sites and doing a little stream work to mitigate damage from their road building, exactly what are all those things the drillers are doing for the local communities? Patronizing the bars at night? Driving up the cost of rental housing? Spreading sexually transmitted disease amongst the womenfolk? Causing school districts to ask local governments to ban truck traffic on local roads during school bus pick-up and drop-off times so kids don't get killed? Upgrading emergency preparedness equipment to handle a well blow out? Running compressor stations that have decibel levels equal to a jet engine?...Really community-oriented stuff...”

Not surprisingly, the state Representative's archaic comments about the STD riddled workers and promiscuous 'womenfolk' has drawn the ire of Rep Sturla's GOP counterparts in the Pennsylvania state house- many of them representing districts where natural gas drilling and exploration are taking place.

“Talk about wrong-headed, misinformed, archaic, and just shocking,” said Rep. Sandra Major (R-Susquehanna/Wayne/Wyoming), the House Republican Caucus Chair. “The House Democrat leadership attitude, after studying the impacts of the Marcellus Shale industry in Pennsylvania, is insulting.”

“Drunks and promiscuous ‘womenfolk’ – that is what the House Democrat leaders are calling the hard-working men and women living within the Marcellus Shale region,” Rep. Sheryl Delozier (R-Cumberland County) said. “Who can really support such notions from leaders who think so little of those working in a growing industry?”

However, Representative Sturla stood by his comments on Wednesday.

Keep in mind that Sturla is from a political party that claims to have the monopoly on concern for the American blue-collar worker, yet his comments about the drunken and diseased Marcellus Shale workers and promiscuous womenfolk exhibit a contempt towards blue collar, rural Americans more typical of Manhattan or inside the Beltway. By and large it seems to be reserved for those doing the hard work in the energy sector, but not necessarily limited to those along the Marcellus Shale.

No less than 10 oil rigs have departed the Gulf of Mexico since the Obama Administration imposed a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after last year's Deepwater Horizon spill.
Earlier this year, the EPA and US Fish and Wildlife Service had proposed moving the dune sagebrush lizard onto the endangered species list, which would severely impact drilling and other activity along its habitat in the Permian Basin along the Texas-New Mexico border.

Obstructionist environmental groups have undertaken a publicity blitz including billboards as far away as Chicago urging public opposition to Trans Canada's proposed Keystone KL pipeline that would send oil from Alberta's Athabasca oil fields to a refinery in Texas.

Exit question- If I were an environmentalist or leftist who held Americans that worked in the coal, oil or natural gas sectors in the utmost contempt, what would I do differently to express my disdain than what any number of Democrats from President Obama all the way down to state Representative Sturla have already done in terms of policy?

[Hat tip- Unlikely Hospitalist]