Drillers Using Counterinsurgency Experts
Marcellus industry taking a page from the military to deal with
media, resident opposition
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
13 November 2011
By Don Hopey
Marcellus Shale gas drilling spokesmen at an industry conference
in Houston said their companies are employing former military
counterinsurgency officers and recommended using military-style
psychological operations strategies, or psyops, to deal with media
inquiries and citizen opposition to drilling in Pennsylvania
communities.
Matt Pitzarella, a Range Resources spokesman speaking to other oil
and gas industry spokespeople at the conference last week, said
the company hires former military psyops specialists who use those
skills in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Pitzarella's statements and related comments made by a
spokesman for Anadarko Petroleum were recorded by a member of an
environmental group who provided them to the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette.
"We have several former psyops folks that work for us at Range
because they're very comfortable in dealing with localized issues
and local governments," Mr. Pitzarella said during the last half
of a 23-minute presentation in a conference session. The session
was titled "Designing a Media Relations Strategy to Overcome
Concerns Surrounding Hydraulic Fracturing."
"Really all they do is spend most of their time helping folks
develop local ordinances and things like that," he continued. "But
very much having that understanding of psyops in the Army and the
Middle East has applied very helpfully here for us in
Pennsylvania."
Matt Carmichael, manager of external affairs for Anadarko
Petroleum, which has nearly 300,000 acres of Marcellus Shale gas
holdings under lease in Central Pennsylvania, gave a speech urging
industry media spokesmen to read a military counterinsurgency
manual for tips in dealing with opponents to shale gas
development.
"Download the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual,
because we are dealing with an insurgency," Mr. Carmichael said in
a session titled "Understanding How Unconventional Oil & Gas
Operators are Developing a Comprehensive Media Relations Strategy
to Engage Stakeholders and Educate the Public."
"There's a lot of good lessons in there," he said, "and coming
from a military background, I found the insight extremely
remarkable."
The remarks of both Mr. Pitzarella and Mr. Carmichael were
recorded at the conference by Sharon Wilson, an activist and
member of the Earthworks Oil and Gas Accountability Project, a
national environmental nonprofit focused on the impacts of mineral
and energy development.
She said the term "insurgent" shows what the industry thinks about
the communities where it is drilling.
"What's clear to me is that they are having to use some very
extreme measures in our neighborhoods. And it seems like they view
it as an occupation," Ms. Wilson said.
Psychological operations is a term used in the military and
intelligence agencies and involves use of selective communications
and sometimes misinformation and deception to manipulate public
perception.
According to a U.S. Army careers website, psyops specialists
"assess the information needs of a target population and develop
and deliver the right message at the right time and place to
create the intended result."
Environmental groups and residents of communities where Marcellus
drilling has been controversial and sometimes contentious were
quick to seize on the comments. They said they reflected the
industry's battlefield mentality and disinformation strategy when
dealing with communities and individuals.
"This is the level of disdain, deception and belligerence that we
are dealing with," said Arthur Clark, an Oil & Gas Committee
co-chair and member of the executive committee of the Pennsylvania
chapter of the Sierra Club.
"On tape and in print, for once, an industry literally at war with
local residents, even labeling them 'insurgents.' I don't recall
seeing anyone toting an AK-47 at any of the public meetings or
rallies regarding frack gas development."
"It sounds like the gas companies are utilizing military 'psyops'
in gas patch communities," said Bill Walker, a spokesman for
Earthworks.
Mr. Carmichael did not return calls requesting comment, but John
Christiansen, director of external communications for Anadarko,
issued a statement, addressing Mr. Carmichael's use of the term
insurgency.
"The reference was not reflective of our core values. Our
community efforts are based upon open communication, active
engagement and transparency, which are all essential in building
fact-based knowledge and earning public trust."
Mr. Pitzarella explained his remarks by saying the industry
employs large numbers of veterans, including an attorney with a
psyops background who "spent time in the Middle East," with
temperaments "well suited" to handling the sometimes "emotional
situations" at community meetings the company holds to explain its
well drilling and fracking operations.
"To suggest that the two comments made at unrelated [conference
sessions] are a strategy is dishonest," Mr. Pitzarella said.
"[Range has] been transparent and accountable, and that's not
something we would do if we were trying to mislead people."
But despite repeated questions, Mr. Pitzarella would not name the
Range attorney with a psyops background.
The company does employ James Cannon, whose LinkIn page lists him
as a "public affairs specialist" for Range and a member of the
U.S. Army's "303 Psyop Co.," a reserve unit in Pittsburgh.
Mr. Cannon could not be reached for comment.
Dencil Backus of Mount Pleasant, a California University of
Pennsylvania communications professor who teaches public
relations, once had Mr. Pitzarella in his class. Mr. Backus said
it's "obvious we have all been targeted" with a communications
strategy that employs misinformation and intimidation, and
includes homespun radio and television ads touting "My drilling
company? Range Resources"; community "informational" meetings that
emphasize the positive and ignore potential problems caused by
drilling and fracking; and recent lawsuits, threats of lawsuits
and commercial boycotts.
"There's just been a number of ways in which they've sought to
intimidate us," said Mr. Backus, who has been a coordinator of a
citizens committee that advised Mount Pleasant on a proposed
Marcellus ordinance. "It's one of the most unethical things I have
ever seen."
Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.