Baker-Hughes new breast cancer drill bit
Salon reports that Baker-Hughes will be painting its fracking drill bits bright pink in support of the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
Fracking’s disgraceful, transparent new “pinkwashing” – Salon.com.
We’re certainly in favor of funding good causes to help fight disease, cancer, etc., and have no axe to grind (so to speak) with the Komen Foundation. But this has to be one of the most bass-ackward public relations ploys in a long time, quite apart from the fact that the connection between fracking and breast cancer is, to say the least, elusive.
Think about this for a minute. That drill bit will be on the end of a string of case hardened steel tubes forced down through layers of rock to a depth of around 10,000 feet. Then, it will be diverted from vertical to horizontal for another two to three miles. That’s about as far into the earth as Mount Everest is tall. If the intent of Baker Hughes and the Komen Foundation is to demonstrate breast cancer awareness to whatever lived during the Precambrian Period, then this is indeed a brilliant strategy.
I have just a few remaining questions.
After boring through 5 miles of rock, exactly how much pink paint will be left on that bit?
Does the fact that during every minute of its descent the bit will be befouled with drilling “mud” in any way detract from the message?
Suggestions to Baker Hughes: (1) Go back to cash donations and rent a couple of highway billboards, and (2) hire a new public relations firm.
Energy Law, Policy and Development 