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| "Mom, what's that smell?" "Oh, that's just Terry, breaking up the rocks underground to release the nice, clean-burning natural gas for us!" |
Coal Cares was a hoax. The coal industry is not giving free asthma inhalers to kids who live near coal-fired power plants. But this one is 100% real: Talisman Terry, your friendly Fracosaurus.
Until they were outed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a natural gas company called Talisman Energy was passing out coloring books explaining the joys of "fracking" to children.
According to the newspaper, "The coloring book's overt message -- drilling is smart, safe and American -- is delivered in kid-friendly fashion, glossing over the environmental and economic controversies that have surrounded drillers tapping the Marcellus Shale rock formation for lucrative pockets of gas."
The coloring book is just one of many such PR efforts by the fossil-fuel suppliers, which is why the "Coal Cares" spoof seemed so believable. In May, children's book publisher Scholastic stopped publishing an energy lesson plan for fourth-graders after critics pointed out that the material was funded by the American Coal Foundation. The names may keep changing, but the lesson remains the same: Fossil fuels are A-OK!