Pirates tix for supporting gas industry? No, but free airfare.

After all the industry grumblings about anti-drilling activists going from town to town to shout against gas companies, there's an email circulating showing that two can play at that game.

A message from Energy In Depth's Northeast Marcellus Initiative was reportedly sent to landowners, seeking pro-drilling bodies to fill the seat's at Monday's U.S. Department of Energy natural gas subcommittee hearing in Washington County. To entice participants, they offered to cover travel costs (even airfare from NE PA), food, hotel rooms - and tickets to the Pittsburgh Pirates game that night.

Never mind the distance, they told the recipients: "We'll try to set something up with pickups in maybe Binghamton, Scranton and the Williamsport area and provide the details when you let us know of your interest," according to the email.

Tom Shepstone, campaign manager for the public relations group, defended the incentives offer when asked about it by The Times-Tribune of Scranton: 

"To ask people from Northeastern Pennsylvania and Central New York to make a seven- or eight-hour trip to go to a hearing - even though they are passionate about it and want to do it - is a very hard request," he said. "You can't expect people to do that unless they have some reward for it. And so we're offering that reward."

But the baseball tickets are out - the game time conflicted with the evening meeting, the paper reports.