Outside Marcellus Shale Coalition's Conference, Chants of "Shut Them Down"

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

September 7, 2011 | 2:34 PM

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Todd Vachon / WHYY

Protests outside the Marcellus Shale Coalition's Philadelphia convention

As energy executives met inside the Philadelphia Convention Center’s carpeted, air-conditioned halls this afternoon, anti-drilling activists braved the heat and humidity to deliver a clear, loud message: don’t frack with us.
Several hundred people lined a street next to the convention center to protest hydraulic fracturing – they’re worried the poisonous chemicals drillers are injecting deep underground will contaminate drinking water in Philadelphia and other communities.

The “Shale Gas Outrage” rally was headlined by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox, who urged the crowd to go to any means necessary, to borrow a term, to stop hydraulic fracturing in eastern Pennsylvania. He said he’s worried the Delaware River Basin Commission will open the doors for drilling within its jurisdiction at an October 21 meeting. “If that happens,” Fox told the cheering crowd, “we’ll shut it down.” If the commission lifts its effective moratorium and approves new drilling, he said, “it’s time to get in the paddy wagon.” Fox proudly told the audience of his recent arrest at Washington, DC protests against the newly-approved Keystone Pipeline.

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Todd Vachon / WHYY

Convention-goers take a look at the protests

Meantime, back in the convention center, Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon questioned drilling opponents’ facts, and accused them of “living in a fantasy world without fossil fuels.”
After McClendon’s speech wrapped up, curious conference-goers gravitated toward the windows to observe the protests. Many took pictures, as they watched people chant, “shut them down!” and “no fracking way!”