ABSTRACT
This chapter explains a combined discourse and rhetorical analysis of the City University of New York (CUNY) Forum. It focuses on excerpts from the debate to provide a combined analysis of arguments generated by the common topics of "balance" and "proof" and how panelists use these topics to promote their respective value systems. The chapter analyzes the excerpts from Goldberg and Gruskin's discussion of fugitive methane emissions in order to demonstrate how panelists use uncertainty as a rhetorical tool to cast doubt on each other's science claims and uphold their values and interests. It discusses a discursive pattern that emerged during the analysis of a public debate over hydraulic fracturing and its potential causes and implications for public deliberation on environmental issues. Michael Aronson continues Goldberg's discussion, focusing on the issue of water filtration in New York, then moves the topic to declining gas prices, claiming that shale gas drilling is no longer necessary because it is no longer profitable.
