Opponents of Fracking Criminals Like Bluegrass Pipeline Company Can't Afford Mistakes Like This

And too often these mistakes are made by religious groups who count on an invisible sky wizard to help them instead of being careful to avoid handing talking points to their enemies.

Greg Kocher at the Herald:

Citizens presented a petition to Gov. Steve Beshear's secretary Tuesday asking the governor to oppose the use of eminent domain to secure easements for a proposed natural gas liquids pipeline.

 About 36,250 signatures were presented to Debra Gall, a front-office assistant in the governor's office, said Sister Claire McGowan of the Dominican Sisters of Peace and executive director of New Pioneers for a Sustainable Future in Springfield.

"This petition represents the deep conviction of people of faith that it is our sacred duty to protect the land and the water and all the communities here in the commonwealth," McGowan said in presenting the petition.

Not all the signatures gathered in the online petition were from Kentucky, McGowan said. (She did not know the ratio between in-state and out-of-state signatures.) Tom Droege, a spokesman for Bluegrass Pipeline, noted that when asked for response by email.
 
"If others want to solicit opinions and support for their point of view from around the world via the internet, we certainly respect their right to do so, but we're continuing to focus on direct contact with Kentucky landowners about this project," Droege wrote.

Exactly. Bluegrass Pipeline opponents are, in fact, themselves property owners directly endangered by toxic fracking waste pouring through their land but New Pioneers managed to sabotage that credibility by slapping onto pipeline opponents the "out-of-staters" label that belongs on the pipeline company.

There is a point at which amateur enthusiasm starts undermining professionalism, and New Pioneers crossed it.