Mahoning Valley Forum

The public will not be allowed to ask questions at this meeting.

Be ye not sad my friend, yea be not troubled of heart, for meetings like this never allow the public to ask questions, nay not even the press. Meetings such as this are for committee members to take testimony from subpoenaed people as part of the legislative process, and while the public is allowed to sit in, they must be absolutely quiet, and if they disrupt the process in any way, they can be tossed out by the ear, and can be jailed if the disruption is serious enough.

This procedure is standard operating procedure both on the state and federal level.

Some of the testimony by the experts should have prompted certain questions.  The panel of state senators and state representative did not catch the discrepancies.

Couldn't agree with you more my friend, couldn't agree with you more, but this saddly is par for the course in these sort of meetings.

From today's Vindy web site:

House hearing at YSU disappoints Rep. Hagan
YOUNGSTOWN
State Rep. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th, expressed disappointment Tuesday with a House Agriculture and Natural Resources subcommittee hearing in his district.
"The events that unfolded at [Youngstown State University] this morning lacked any substantive analysis or investigation into injection wells and recent earthquakes in Youngstown," Hagan said in a statement.
"Instead, the hearing amounted to little more than the continuation of the oil and gas industry's public relations campaign. Instead of thoughtful answers to probing questions, industry representatives were all too eager in seeking greater latitude for their industry to 'do what they think is right.'
"Well, I remain unconvinced that the community's questions are being taken seriously. ODNR still has answers to provide regarding seismic activity and injection wells all over the state, including communities like Marietta and Youngstown. It is almost shameful how brazen the industry is in pushing their agenda over public safety."

My question, if oil and gas industry representatives did all the talking and presented their spin....what background or knowledge do this representatives on the committee have? How much information do they possess to really ask questions? Do they have any clue on the information that the
oil and gas representatives are presenting to them? Or do they just sit there and nod their heads in agreement to any spin these oil and gas representatives throw at them?

Having watched many Congressional committee hearings on C-SPAN I wonder just how much value any of them have. The public hearings more often than not are farces, and unfortunitely we're not prive to the closed door executive hearings barred even to the press.

It should be noted that in the grand scheme of things, both state and federal, the committee members do not sit down in their offices and actually prepare their own material but use pre-prepared material that was written by staffers both in their office and committee staffers, just as they do not actually read bills they are to vote on, but rely on brief summeries prepared by staffers from the party leadership office. Even their floor speecher are written for them by staffers.

Use safeguards to avert quakes, experts testify at YSU drilling hearing

http://www.vindy.com/news/2012/jan/18/use-safeguards-to-avert-quakes-experts-t/ (http://www.vindy.com/news/2012/jan/18/use-safeguards-to-avert-quakes-experts-t/)