Gas Drillers Pumping Money Into County Fairs

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.

August 15, 2011 | 11:21 AM

Who doesn’t love fairs? There’s no downside to mixing fried food, carnival rides and livestock – unless, of course, your stomach is concerned.
August is peak fair season, and people across Pennsylvania have spent the last few weeks streaming into their local fairgrounds to catch the fun. According to the Post-Gazette, many drilling companies share that enthusiasm. The paper reports drillers have pumped money into county and local fairs, sponsoring events and even buying up prize-winning livestock in an effort to boost their public image.

…[I]t turns out that one of the social events of the year, the county fair, isn’t a bad way to introduce itself to its skeptical neighbors. Drilling in the natural gas rich Marcellus Shale has turned the annual summer gatherings into attractions with Nascar-style endorsements meant to help shore up support for a controversial industry planning on a decades-long investment in the region.
Local businesses have always vied for the ribbon that comes with a prized purchase, and the county fair season has introduced some heavy hitters to the mix.
It’s an outreach program that can add some colorful assets to a company’s portfolio.