American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2019 - 118

· Social media presence;
· Local government outreach; and
· State and federal government outreach.
"These programs are being put in
place," Hedin stated. "I think they are
going well; hopefully you will notice
some results from this."
Incoming IOGA President Bryan Hood,
president of Shakespeare Oil Co. in Salem,
Il., saluted the two organizations during
IOGA's Wildcatter Awards Banquet.
"When I look around the room, I think
of the word team," he expressed. "You
put together all the expertise of IPRB
and its board, IOGA and its board and
everybody collectively, and we are a very
successful and capable group. I feel this
group will be able to accomplish whatever
we put our sights on and, hopefully, can
resolve issues that come our way."
Communications Progress
During IOGA's annual membership
meeting, Whitehead, who succeeded
Charles Williams as IPRB executive director in January, reviewed some of the
progress his group had made. He said
IPRB would debut an updated website
by the end of March.
"My goal is for our website to be a
source not only for Illinois industry information, but information in general to
push back on the keep-it-in-the-ground
movement," he advised. "We are in a
full-on fight with keep-it-in-the-ground."
IPRB has launched Facebook and
Twitter accounts, and planned to start an
Instagram page within the week, Whitehead told IOGA. He compared IPRB's
website to an electric guitar and likened
Facebook and Twitter to amplifiers. "It is
a way for us to reach folks who otherwise
wouldn't have any interest in visiting our

website or listening to anything we have
to say or put out," he explained.
Whitehead said he was pleased that
out of the 600 followers IPRB's Facebook
page had attracted in its first two months,
one-quarter were millennials, which he
described as "a demographic we really
need to reach."
But IPRB hasn't forgotten traditional
media, Whitehead assured. "In the last
three months, we have appeared in 13
media publications, most notably the Southern Illinoisan newspaper in Carbondale
and WSIL-TV in Carterville, which as
you probably are aware has been pretty
anti-industry in the past," he detailed.
Equally important, he suggested, is
holding media responsible for erroneous
reports. "Whether they will correct the
record is about a 60-40 proposition,"
Whitehead allowed. "Most of the time
they will refuse, but invariably they need
to know we are watching and that we are
ready to respond."
Finally, he said, IPRB has launched a
YouTube channel it branded as "Hometown Energy."
"This will highlight the fact our industry
is primarily small independents, primarily
locally owned, and not 'big oil,'" Whitehead
outlined. "Hopefully, the humanizing, oneon-one types of interviews you will see
on our YouTube channel will convey that."
Colorado Initiative
Colorado voters rejected Proposition
112 55-45 percent last November, but
Whitehead pointed out the ballot initiative
garnered 1 million yes votes, despite the
oil and gas industry outspending proponents $30 million to $1 million. "Nobody
in industry was out 'spiking the ball in
the end zone,'" he asserted.
He said the tactics used to promote

Outgoing Illinois Oil & Gas Association President Craig
Hedin (left), vice president and
general counsel for Gesell's
Pump Sales and Service in
Whittington, Il., "passes the
gavel" to incoming President
Bryan Hood, president of
Shakespeare Oil Co. in Salem,
Il., during the association's annual meeting, held March 5-7
in Evansville, In.

118 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

The Illinois Petroleum Resources Board
wants its reworked website to be a resource for resisting anti-industry activists,
new Executive Director Seth Whitehead
tells the Illinois Oil & Gas Association.
He mentioned that IPRB had launched
Facebook and Twitter accounts, and
planned to start an Instagram page.

Prop 112 mirrored tactics used by industry
opponents throughout the country. "The
whole mantra was these were reasonable
measures to address health and safety
rather than a blatant attempt to ban the industry," Whitehead said. "The primary argument was that 2,500-foot setbacks were
irrelevant because with horizontal drilling,
you can access the formations you want
to reach from two or three miles away. To
the general public, that sounds perfectly
reasonable, but it isn't reality at all."
As is frequently the case, Whitehead
continued, Prop 112 was backed by a
fake grass-roots movement orchestrated
by national activist groups. In this case,
Colorado Rising was underwritten by
Washington-based Food & Water Watch
and 350.org, he said.
Fearmongering with junk science was
another tactic. Whitehead said Prop 112
proponents sensationalized a 2017 home
explosion in Firestone, Co., even though
it related to a well drilled long before
urban encroachment and wouldn't have
been prevented by Prop 112.
A key flash point of the campaign, he
reflected, was a televised complaint before
the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation
Commission by an activist mother who
claimed her child suffered from elevated
levels of volatile organic compounds in
his blood that "could have come only
from oil field activity."
Although the woman's claims and the
efficacy of the blood tests eventually were
disavowed by the Colorado Department
of Public Health and Environment, that
SEE ADVOCATES PAGE 125

http://www.350.org

American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2019

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