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Page added on December 13, 2013
The curious case of the oil and gas engineer who really wasn’t
Every journalist’s nightmare is to use a quote from somebody who is not really who they say they are. And something like that has now come to the fracking debate.
The Telegram, a newspaper based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, last week ran a letter from a Syd Peters. He claimed to be an engineer based in Alberta who had worked with fracking, and oh, he can talk some trash.
According to the energy view of Syd, jobs produced by fracking are far less than claimed; damage to groundwater supplies is extensive; methane leakage is rampant. It’s the usual litany brought up by fracking critics.
You can see the letter here. That particular instance of the letter includes The Telegram being forced to admit that it hadn’t gone through its normal procedures to determine the identity of a letter writer. The statement was not much more than “mistakes were made.”
It took a column in The Telegram by a writer named Ezra Levant to declare what the paper itself seems loath to admit: there is no Syd Peters.
“Except there is no oil and gas engineer from Calgary named Syd Peters,” Levant wrote. “APEGA, Alberta’s professional association of engineers, has no record of him. He’s not in the Calgary phone book. His stories were fake, just like he is.”
The site of this debate is particularly notable, because last month, the government of Newfoundland and Labrador put a temporary moratorium on granting fracking permits. The province has granted exploration permits to drill in a shale formation in the western part of the province, but had not yet received any fracking applications. Now if there are any, they must await the end of the moratorium, which will be dependent upon a government review.
The irony in the name of the apparently fictional letter-writer is that it’s awfully close to that of Sidd Finch. Baseball fans will remember him as a phenomenal pitcher who ultimately did not exist.
Neither, apparently, does Syd Peters.
7 Comments on "The curious case of the oil and gas engineer who really wasn’t"
DC on Sat, 14th Dec 2013 12:44 am
LOL! Ezra Levant! To call him a writer is a bit a stretch. In actual fact, he is this Canadian jew is a paid shill that manufactures fake dissent for his clients, The oil and gas industry. He is the toad that came up with the ridiculous moniker,
“Ethical Oil”, to help US corporations sell the tar-sands.
Now, ‘Ezra’ does exist, but all his arguments, such as they are, are specious, shallow and often based on fake science and faulty logic. Hes the kind of guy FOX news would probably tell to slow down.
I dont know about this ‘Syd’ story and TBH, dont really care. I dont base my opposition to the tar-sands on what ‘Syd’ is saying anyhow. I wouldnt be the least suprised if Ezra and his pals *are* ‘Syd’, and then ‘exposed’ Syd, all in of course, in order to make Tar-sands and fraking look like, well, frauds is the implication. No one opposed to fraking or the tar-sands has to fake being an ‘oil engineer’ to make credible claims in opposition to the O&G industry.
DC on Sat, 14th Dec 2013 12:45 am
Ghetto edit:Sorry Tar Sands and fraking (opponents)
BillT on Sat, 14th Dec 2013 1:09 am
The lies are ramping up as the oil recovery declines. Nothing is as it seems these days, and perhaps never was.
GregT on Sat, 14th Dec 2013 6:03 am
And to think that I thought I was the only one to ever hear of this clown.
Thanks DC, I hope you don’t mind if I send your comment to a couple of my ‘acquaintances’.
DC on Sat, 14th Dec 2013 7:34 am
Sure, but I really mangled the editing on that one. I didnt have my glasses on 🙁
rockman on Sat, 14th Dec 2013 7:00 pm
Bill – “…and perhaps never was.” Never was IMHO. I’ve been in the oil patch for 380years and I’ve seen liars and cheats on both sides of the fence. I’ve testfied as an expert witness in lawsuits both for and against companies and landowners. It’s simply human nature: some dishonest folks on both sides of every issue IMHO.
green_achers on Sun, 15th Dec 2013 12:49 am
Or maybe Syd really is an oil and gas engineer who, like, works in the oil and gas industry and doesn’t want to reveal his identity for obvious reasons.