This article is cross-posted from the Raging Chicken Press. To watch the embeded video of Representative Everett threatening to kick an activist out of a public meeting, please click on the following link.
Last week, State Representative Garth Everett held a public town hall meeting in the 84th district, which is located in and around Williamsport, Pa. Since Representative Everett is aiding and abetting the industrialization of rural Pennsylvania, drilling for natural gas – or fracking it out of the ground – is a sticky situation, and his public event brought out his constituents and those from outside his district. Representative Everett’s voting record mirrors one that is bought off by the Natural Gas Industry. He has voted for Act 13 – the bill that restricts a municipalities right to enforce effective zoning measures against the gas industry, he has also voted to allow drilling on Pennsylvania State University campuses and to eliminate subsidies for renewable energy resources. During the meeting (and in the video below), a resident was complaining to Representative Everett about how his water was contaminated by Range Resources – surprise, surprise – and that the DEP and has essentially kicked the ball down the road, not solving the contaminated water problem (but who here is honestly surprised by that). The man’s story mirrors those in Dimock and in other parts of Shale Country.
During the conversation with his constituent, Representative Everett stays face and tells the man that the problem lies within the DEP, and that the DEP should have initially helped the man. In the middle of the exchange, Raging Chicken Press writer and agitator extraordinaire Wendy Lynne Lee sets the record straight and explains to the crowd that Michael Krancer “the head of DEP is in fact an appointment of the Corbett, and he came from the gas and oil industry. He came from Exelon.” Rising to Krancer’s defense, Everett told Wendy that “[she] could have a meeting somewhere else.” Then Everett asked Wendy if she “would want to stay or leave?” When Wendy replied, asking if Everett would throw her out of the office, he gave the curt response of “absolutely.” After the back and forth Everett comes up to the camera and tells Wendy that the man speaking “is a constituent and you’re a guest.” After Wendy pointed out that she was a resident of the state – and is in fact at a Town Hall meeting open to the general public, Representative Everett – in a condescending tone – explains that Wendy should be grateful that she is allowed in an area that she wasn’t even invited to. To watch the full exchange, please watch the video below. It will begin around the 10 minute mark, and the exchange between Wendy and Representative Everett starts around the 15 minute mark.