New Bethlehem, Pennsylvania residents attending a forum hosted by environmentalists got an ear full of fear. The Leigh Valley Sierra Club hosted a forum at a local community college in an attempt to convince local residents to lobby elected officials in the area to halt the construction of a natural gas pipeline for the PennEast Pipeline company.

The underground pipeline was announced in August by PennEast in which it would stretch through three eastern Pennsylvania counties and would carry 1 billion cubic feet of low-cost natural gas daily from the Marcellus Shale to customers in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and more. The pipeline has been met by opposition, but it’s clear the reason for their it is due to the slanted manner in which environmentalists are spinning this issue.

According to a local television station, one speaker at the event called pipelines a sham, while another stated:

When a pipeline cuts through a community, they literally cut through a community and the damage to private yards, farms, creeks, wetlands, and forests are devastating and leave long term scars, pollution, and safety concerns.

Despite assurances from PennEast that they would restore lands and areas affected by the pipeline’s construction to their original state, it was condemned as a bald-faced lie by one of the panelists. There was also talk of potential health risks like headaches or even explosions thrown in for good measure.

Executive Director of the Pipeline Safety Coalition Lynda Farrell is quoted as saying:

We believe citizens have the right to know what they’re dealing with when a pipeline project is proposed near their homes. Protecting the landowners, the community, and the environment can only be achieved by informed and involved citizens.

In other words, what people like Farrell are really saying is we (the environmentalists) want you to stop this pipeline for your own good. Just like the lies they told about the Keystone pipeline, this is yet another action on the part of environmentalists who are hostile to economic growth and the ability of people to have access to cheap, affordable natural gas that just so happens to have been extracting by fracking.