Marcellus Shale Coalition Ready For Conference Protests

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 1, 2011 | 1:29 PM

Philadelphia will be Shale Central next week. The Marcellus Shale Coalition’s two-day “Shale Gas Insight” conference is attracting drilling stakeholders from all across the country, including three Pennsylvania governors.
The city will be filled with anti-drilling protests, too. Fracking opponents have formed their own itinerary of events and rallies, dubbed “Shale Gas Outrage.”

The Marcellus Shale Coalition is braced and ready for the protests. The group sent a “Safety and Security” email to conference attendees today, providing instructions on how they should handle any hostility. “While we are expecting protestors, our security staff have been working with the Pennsylvania Convention Center staff, the Philadelphia Police, and other officials, and we’re confident there will be little disruption to our event,” read the email.
Here are the MSC’s tips for dealing with “protestors and demonstrations.”
• The primary entrance for the conference is on Broad Street. If you will be entering or departing the conference during the time of the scheduled protest, consider walking through the convention center using the Marriott entrance. Avoid the areas where protestors are gathering.
• It is best not to engage in dialogue with protestors.
• If you are presenting and a conference attendee interrupts your comments, a session monitor will approach the individual and ask for the disruption to cease. If he/she does not comply, security will be summoned. It is best for presenters to step back from the microphone during the disruption and security response.
• If a person close to you becomes disruptive during a presentation, do not personally intervene. If security is not in the immediate vicinity they will be close by — find a security member and request their assistance.
• Cooperate with all direction and requests made by conference security personnel and/or the Philadelphia Police Department.
• The police will be monitoring all protest activity.