The shale gas lobby’s new strategy: Indoctrinate children with coloring books

Talisman Energy paints a picture of its magical world: The rocks and the sun are smiling, the American flag blows in the wind on top of an oil rig, and shale gas is a safe and clean source of energy. The problem is that unless you are a “fracosaurus” named “Talisman Terry,” this world doesn’t exist. Yet this colouring book is distributed by a Canadian shale gas company to win the hearts and minds of American children.

As noted by Rue Frontenac, this “good neighbor” campaign is targeted at the Twin Tiers region (In New York and Pennsylvania). Talisman is also known for meddling in higher education, ranging from providing scholarships to hosting informational sessions on employment opportunities resulting from this natural resource. Yet more recently, Talisman’s propaganda is targeting young children – copies of colouring books were distributed in picnic areas in the northeast of Pennsylvania.

The executives in Texas are no exception to this questionable strategy. The beagle in a white hat, “Chesapeake Charlie” was invited to a “Day of Family Fun” – An event which was organized by shale gas extractors in Charleston, Virginia.

Considered as “crude propaganda” for local activist, this type of indoctrination is adding gasoline to old debate on mixing the educational system and big companies in the United States. Last May, Scholastic stopped publishing Lessons on U.S. Energy (despite a $300,000 grant), which was a book aimed at nine to ten year-old children and distributed in schools. This manual and associated programs had the slogan “When there is coal, there are opportunities.” This campaign reached 66,000 school children and was fully funded by the American Coal Foundation – a well known lobby for US coal.