By Sari Heidenreich
Capitolwire
HARRISBURG (Aug. 17) – Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster, apologized to reporters Wednesday for referring to Pennsylvania females as “womenfolk” in comments to Capitolwire yesterday about the impacts of natural gas drilling.
In an email to Capitolwire yesterday, Sturla said,“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? … Really community oriented stuff…”
For his full e-mail response, click here. Sturla was responding to statements regarding the impacts of natural gas drilling made by Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Alan Walker during a Capitolwire interview.
Sturla’s comment came under fire yesterday when House Republican Spokesman Steven Miskin referred to it as chauvinistic and a “wrong direction for policy discussion.”
“In what should outrage every Pennsylvanian, at least one House Democrat leader has concluded that the only impact of Marcellus Shale drilling in Pennsylvania has been increased business at local establishments and promiscuity,” Miskin wrote in a press release.
“Talk about wrong-headed, misinformed, archaic, and just shocking,” said Rep. Sandra Major, R-Susquehanna in response to Sturla’s comments. “The House Democrat leadership attitude, after studying the impacts of the Marcellus Shale industry in Pennsylvania, is insulting.”
There is a significant amount of drilling that occurs in Major’s district, which also includes parts of Wayne and Wyoming counties.
Sturla said he stood by his statement that drilling was causing a rise in sexually transmitted diseases but that “parlance of the term womenfolk was more in reference to how I think the out-of-state drillers may view women in the state of Pennsylvania, and, if anyone was offended by that term, I apologize.”
“I’m offended by the driller’s actions and their sort of willingness to, ya know, come in in a Wild West way. I think that’s where the offense is. If I mischaracterized … maybe these guys are gentleman that just spread sexually transmitted diseases, I don’t know,” he said.
Miskin said Sturla’s “insinuation is that Pennsylvania’s most zealous industry workers are sex-crazed, disease-ridden people and that is just wrong on so many different levels.”
“The House Democrats spent months holding hearings about the Marcellus Shale industry and this is the conclusion? Sexually transmitted disease and bars?,” Miskin asked. “Did any member of that caucus step foot in the Marcellus Shale region? Did they see the growth? The homes being painted? People working? Or are they just remaining ignorant to that?”
Sturla maintained his criticism of the industry, saying there is a “preponderance of evidence that the spread of STDs is there.” He cited a study by Bradford County’s Troy Community Hospital, which said they had experienced “an increase in sexually transmitted diseases” as a result of drilling in the Marcellus Shale.
Bradford County is one of the state’s largest drilling counties.
“I think this is a case of kill-the-messenger because they [the Republicans] don’t like what I have to say about taxation of Marcellus shale,” Sturla said. “They don’t like what I have to say about forest fragmentation of Marcellus shale, they don’t like what I have to say about the impact of Marcellus Shale.
“If they’re concerned about my insensitivity to women’s rights, I think all they need to do is look at my record as it relates to women’s issues … I would think they would be outraged by Secretary Walker’s comments that … basically fly in the face of science.”
The “science” referred to by Sturla is the interpretation of a two-year study, conducted under former governor Ed Rendell, by Jan Jarrett, head of the environmental advocacy group PennFuture, that the study “determined that more leasing [of state lands] would irreparably damage the forest and threaten the certification that the forest is sustainably managed.”
During a recent interview with Capitolwire, DCED Secretary Alan Walker said leasing the majority of the state’s forestland for drilling could help bring in $60 billion over the next 30 years.
Walker went on to say such leasing posed few concerns: “The way the drilling platforms are being set up today – where you may only have to have one pad every so many square miles – it’s a minimum impact on the state forest property, and in a matter of a couple years, it’s going to be re-vegetated.”
EDITOR: Objections to the use of the word “womenfolk”? The only thin Sturla needs to apologize for is being of a generation where that term connoted warmth and respect. And as a long time member of the construction industry, the Watchdog can avere that construction workers tend to be “sexed crazed” as are most other men except when posturing for women. Nevertheless, Mike did get a little carried away with his rhetoric. But that pales in comparison to those who permit the share of revenue that are taxed by every other state to flow to further enhace corporate profits.
Who keeps re-electing this guy??????????????????