As the rhetoric heats up over natural gas drilling in West Virginia's portion of the Marcellus shale field and opposition to the unconventional deep wells grows, the industry is cranking up the public relations machine.
At a conference in Morgantown on Tuesday, the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia touted its 4-week-old "Just Beneath the Surface" campaign and website.
President Mike McCown said it's designed to provide factual information to anti-drilling groups he referred to as "wing nut organizations ... friends of the whatever" -- groups that he argues should be supporting one of the state's most promising economic engines.