In this photo made on Saturday, March 1, 2014, Brian Scritchfield takes an order over the telephone at Bobtown Pizza in Bobtown, Pa. The little pizza shop in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania was placed in the spotlight when energy giant Chevron offered coupons for free pizza from their shop to people who live near the area where a natural gas well that exploded, killing one worker on Feb 11, 2014. Some news stories and internet opinion posts have been critical about the offer by Chevron Corp., but many residents of the town said they didn’t mind the pizza offer. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
March 06, 2014 - 10:03 PM
BOBTOWN, Pa. - Critics are raging after an energy giant offered pizza coupons to a Pennsylvania community near a natural gas well that exploded last month and killed a worker.
News stories, TV shows and blogs have spread the word far and wide about Chevron Corp.'s offer. Many feature sarcasm or even outright scorn.
But not one resident of the hamlet of Bobtown has signed an online petition demanding that Chevron apologize. A recent visit by The Associated Press found that the talk of the town is more the furious response by outsiders.
Several people noted that the pizza offer was made to apologize for traffic after the fire, not to downplay the loss of life.
The outsized reaction from people not directly affected by the accident illustrates the larger passions surrounding the fracking debate.
News from © The Associated Press, 2014