Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon rebuked critics of natural gas shale drilling during an industry conference in Philadelphia yesterday. McClendon told the crowd environmentalists protesting outside the meeting were living in a “fantasy land of a world without fossil fuels.”

McClendon also said the so-called “fractivists” want to turn the clock back to a time without electricity. StateImpactPA reports McClendon said Chesapeake has used the process called fracking on 16-thousand wells and he says critics can only point to one or two instances of groundwater contamination in the entire history of gas drilling. McClendon also says only a couple dozen homeowners in northeast Pennsylvania have suffered from methane migration.

Speaking at the same conference, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell provided support for the “fractivists.” He says residents concerned about drilling in the Marcellus Shale are raising serious and legitimate issues.

StateImpactPA reports Rendell also argued drilling companies have hurt their public image by opposing a severance tax on gas extraction, and by not taking enough steps to protect the environment. He pointed to hundreds of Department of Environmental Protection violations racked up by drillers in recent months. StateImpact PA