Gasland, The Movie. Yea or Nea?????

[Intense]

Who is up to separating truth from fiction?????



Plot Summary for
GasLand (2010) More at IMDbPro »
ad feedbackIt is happening all across America-rural landowners wake up one day to find a lucrative offer from an energy company wanting to lease their property. Reason? The company hopes to tap into a reservoir dubbed the "Saudi Arabia of natural gas." Halliburton developed a way to get the gas out of the ground-a hydraulic drilling process called "fracking"-and suddenly America finds itself on the precipice of becoming an energy superpower. Written by Sundance Film Festival

GasLand (2010)



Josh Fox makes his mainstream debut with his fictional rant film targeting natural gas – but how much of it is actually true?"

One glaring error in the film is the suggestion that gas drilling led to the September fish kill at Dunkard Creek in Greene County. That was determined to have been caused by a golden algae bloom from coal mine drainage, (from CONSOL Energy discharge), NOT natural gas drilling.

Attached below are 2 reports from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. The Commission investigated the Markham and McClure water wells, each referenced in the movie Gasland. Sample results showed that the water wells contained naturally occurring biogenic methane gas. In each case, the Commission found that the complaints were unrelated to oil and gas activities.

For an avant-garde filmmaker and stage director whose previous work has been recognized by the “Fringe Festival” of New York City, HBO’s decision to air the GasLand documentary nationwide later this month represents Josh Fox’s first real foray into the mainstream – and, with the potential to reach even a portion of the network’s 30 million U.S. subscribers, a potentially significant one at that.

But with larger audiences and greater fanfare come the expectation of a few basic things: accuracy, attention to detail, and original reporting among them. Unfortunately, in the case of this film, accuracy is too often pushed aside for simplicity, evidence too often sacrificed for exaggeration, and the same old cast of characters and anecdotes – previously debunked – simply lifted from prior incarnations of the film and given a new home in this one.

“I’m sorry,” Josh Fox once told a New York City magazine, “but art is more important than politics. … Politics is people lying to you and simplifying everything; art is about contradictions.” And so it is with GasLand: politics at its worst, art at its most contrived, and contradictions of fact found around every bend of the river. Against that backdrop, we attempt below to identify and correct some of the most egregious inaccuracies upon which the film is based (all quotes are from Josh Fox, unless otherwise noted):

DEBUNKING GasLand THE MOVIE

 

[Bfgrn]

Call your Congressman and Senator voicing your strong support for the The Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act

The Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act (H.R. 2766), (S. 1215) -- dubbed the FRAC Act—was introduced to both houses of the the United States Congress on June 9, 2009, and aims to repeal the exemption for hydraulic fracturing in the Safe Drinking Water Act. It would require the energy industry to disclose the chemicals it mixes with the water and sand it pumps underground in the hydraulic fracturing process (also known as fracking), information that has largely been protected as trade secrets. Controversy surrounds the practice of hydraulic fracturing as a threat to drinking water supplies. The gas industry opposes the legislation.

The House bill was introduced by representatives Diana DeGette, D-Colo., Maurice Hinchey D-N.Y., and Jared Polis, D-Colo.

The Senate version was introduced by senators Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
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I strongly suggest you WATCH Gasland on HBO. If you want to view it on the internet here is a link:

"Gasland" . NOW on PBS

It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.
Albert Camus

 

[Intense]

Call your Congressman and Senator voicing your strong support for the The Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act

The Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act (H.R. 2766), (S. 1215) -- dubbed the FRAC Act—was introduced to both houses of the the United States Congress on June 9, 2009, and aims to repeal the exemption for hydraulic fracturing in the Safe Drinking Water Act. It would require the energy industry to disclose the chemicals it mixes with the water and sand it pumps underground in the hydraulic fracturing process (also known as fracking), information that has largely been protected as trade secrets. Controversy surrounds the practice of hydraulic fracturing as a threat to drinking water supplies. The gas industry opposes the legislation.

The House bill was introduced by representatives Diana DeGette, D-Colo., Maurice Hinchey D-N.Y., and Jared Polis, D-Colo.

The Senate version was introduced by senators Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
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I strongly suggest you WATCH Gasland on HBO. If you want to view it on the internet here is a link:

"Gasland" . NOW on PBS

It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.
Albert Camus

Check out the other link, and assess it. There are 3 pages to it. Let me know what you think.

 

[Old Rocks]

OK, let's get some second opinions. Scientific American.

Does Natural Gas Drilling Make Water Burn?: Scientific American

DIMOCK, PA -- Norma Fiorentino’s drinking water well was a time bomb. For weeks, as workers drilled natural gas deposits nearby, stray methane worked into tiny crevasses in the rock, leaking upward into the aquifer and slipping quietly into her well. Then, according to the state’s working theory, a pump turned on in her well house, flicked a spark, and caused a New Year’s morning blast that tossed aside a several-thousand-pound concrete slab.

Afterward state officials found methane, the largest component of natural gas, in her drinking water.

Dimock, the poverty-stricken Susquehana County enclave where Fiorentino lives, is ground zero for drilling the Marcellus Shale, a prized deposit of natural gas touted as one of the most abundant and cleanest alternatives to oil. The drilling here is supposed to be a boon, bringing jobs and millions of dollars in royalties to cash-strapped homeowners.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Yes, a sample of one in the whole state of PA is very statistically significant.

How many "Amens" do you need before you have a "Consensus"?

 

[Old Rocks]

Pop Up Video

 

[Old Rocks]

Seems to be a rather widespread problem

U.S. finds water polluted near gas-drilling sites | Reuters

Reuters) - U.S. government scientists have for the first time found chemical contaminants in drinking water wells near natural gas drilling operations, fueling concern that a gas-extraction technique is endangering the health of people who live close to drilling rigs.

Green Business

The Environmental Protection Agency found chemicals that researchers say may cause illnesses including cancer, kidney failure, anemia and fertility problems in water from 11 of 39 wells tested around the Wyoming town of Pavillion in March and May this year.

The report issued this month did not reach a conclusion about the cause of contamination but named gas drilling as a potential source.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Pop Up Video

I was going to mock you and point out that Caddo Parish, LA is not real close to PA.

What's the lesson, don't live anywhere near place where CH4 can leach out?

Don't drill for gas or oil? Life is too dangerous to be without EnviroMarxistist directing all human activities?

 

[Old Rocks]

That is hardly minor pollution when your house blows up because the aquifer that your well taps has been injected with natural gas and chemicals from the drilling of a natural gas well.

But a string of documented cases of gas escaping into drinking water -- not just in Pennsylvania but across North America -- is raising new concerns about the hidden costs of this economic tide and strengthening arguments across the country that drilling can put drinking water at risk.

Near Cleveland, Ohio, an entire house exploded in late 2007 after gas seeped into its water well. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources later issued a 153-page report [2] (PDF) that blamed a nearby gas well's faulty concrete casing and hydraulic fracturing [3] -- a deep-drilling process that shoots millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals into the ground under explosive pressure -- for pushing methane into an aquifer and causing the explosion.

In Dimock, several drinking water wells have exploded and nine others were found with so much gas that one homeowner was told to open a window if he planned to take a bath. Dishes showed metallic streaks that couldn't be washed off, and tests also showed high amounts of aluminum and iron, prompting fears that drilling fluids might be contaminating the water along with the gas. In February, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection charged Cabot Oil & Gas with two violations that it says caused the contamination, theorizing that gas leaked from the well casing into fractures underground.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Crapping out on CO2 as the cause of "Global Warming" so they move seamlessly to the hazards of CH4

 

[Old Rocks]

The lesson is rather simple. You don't use drilling methods that destroy aquifers, and you case the well in a manner that prevents leaks into the aquifers. If the well cannot produce enough gas to justify those measures, it is not worth developing.

 

[Old Rocks]

Now Frank, don't you have some more crying, pissing and moaning, to do about the plight of poor picked on BP?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Now Frank, don't you have some more crying, pissing and moaning, to do about the plight of poor picked on BP?

Is your 2 Minute Hate over already?

 

[Old Rocks]

Franky, little boy, the subject was that the movie presented a falsehood concerning the danger to aquifers from drilling natural gas. I presented cases where that had happened. You presented your usual unsupported yap-yap. Are you ever going to speak with more than adolescent maturity?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Franky, little boy, the subject was that the movie presented a falsehood concerning the danger to aquifers from drilling natural gas. I presented cases where that had happened. You presented your usual unsupported yap-yap. Are you ever going to speak with more than adolescent maturity?

Yes, the world is a dangerous place, it moves around a lot. It's likely that gas also leeches into aquifers where there's no drilling as well.

What do you propose, stop all drilling?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Franky, little boy, the subject was that the movie presented a falsehood concerning the danger to aquifers from drilling natural gas. I presented cases where that had happened. You presented your usual unsupported yap-yap. Are you ever going to speak with more than adolescent maturity?

Is there a Consensus that drilling for gas is bad?

Has it been "peer reviewed"

What percent of the East Angelia Insane Clown Posse and Data Cooking Center supports a ban on drilling, 97%, 98%?

 

[Intense]

My concern is the dangers of current drilling practices, whether they are real or imagined, whether the regularity authorities are doing what they can to develop safe industry, or obstruct, and aid criminal and negligent activity. Anything worth doing, is worth doing right, or not at all.

"Gasland" the movie combined fact and fiction, knowingly. That works against intent. It is juvenile. Independent analysis is needed, be it government, university, or what ever. What is important here is the facts, unobstructed, which point us in the right direction of discovery and improvement. I'm not speaking politically, but scientifically. Studies are needed. Current Procedures need to be examined, chemicals, containment, disposal.

Non-Disclosure agreements, burying the dead, are no solution. Where there is extreme contamination, drilling should be suspended and studies done now, not tomorrow.

People are being exposed to toxins, getting sick and dying. I don't know why they stay at all. I'd rather be alive, well, and homeless, than a terminally ill victim of the unholy marriage of government and business.

It is about learning how to operate better in the long haul, not cheaper. There is no excuse for negligence. Cease and desist. The truth is what matters, unveiling it, and sharing it.

 

[Bfgrn]

My concern is the dangers of current drilling practices, whether they are real or imagined, whether the regularity authorities are doing what they can to develop safe industry, or obstruct, and aid criminal and negligent activity. Anything worth doing, is worth doing right, or not at all.

"Gasland" the movie combined fact and fiction, knowingly. That works against intent. It is juvenile. Independent analysis is needed, be it government, university, or what ever. What is important here is the facts, unobstructed, which point us in the right direction of discovery and improvement. I'm not speaking politically, but scientifically. Studies are needed. Current Procedures need to be examined, chemicals, containment, disposal.

Non-Disclosure agreements, burying the dead, are no solution. Where there is extreme contamination, drilling should be suspended and studies done now, not tomorrow.

People are being exposed to toxins, getting sick and dying. I don't know why they stay at all. I'd rather be alive, well, and homeless, than a terminally ill victim of the unholy marriage of government and business.

It is about learning how to operate better in the long haul, not cheaper. There is no excuse for negligence. Cease and desist. The truth is what matters, unveiling it, and sharing it.

I couldn't agree more. WHAT matters is the truth. If Fox's movie plays a role in finding that out, then it will have accomplished more than most films.

EPA Launches National Study of Hydraulic Fracturing

March 18, 2010 4:38 pm EDT

Responding to reports of environmental contamination in gas drilling areas across the country, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will conduct a nationwide scientific study to determine if the problems are caused by the practice of injecting chemicals and water underground to fracture the gas-bearing rock.

The study, announced Thursday but hinted at for months, will revisit research the agency published in 2004, which concluded that the process of hydraulic fracturing did not pose a threat to drinking water. The 2004 report has been widely criticized, in part because the agency didn't conduct any water tests in reaching that conclusion.

"The use of hydraulic fracturing has significantly increased well beyond the scope of the 2004 study," EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones wrote in response to questions from ProPublica. The old study, she said, did not address drilling in shale, which is common today. It also didn't take into account the relatively new practice of drilling and hydraulically fracturing horizontally for up to a mile underground, which requires about five times more chemical-laden fluids than vertical drilling. "This study is the agency's response to public concern about this practice and Congressional request."

The 2004 report was used by the Bush administration and Congress to justify legislation exempting hydraulic fracturing from oversight under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The exemption came to be known in some quarters as the "Halliburton loophole" and has inhibited federal regulators ever since.

The fracturing technology, in which a mixture of chemicals and water is injected underground with sand at high pressure to crack the earth and release natural gas, made it possible for energy companies to open vast domestic energy reserves across the country and fueled a nationwide boom in drilling activity.

"EPA needs to finish what it started," said Gwen Lachelt, director of the Oil and Gas Accountability Project, a Colorado-based advocacy group that represents landowners with contaminated water. "We need comprehensive studies of the entire exploration and production process, but this is an important place to start."

Whole article...

 

[Old Rocks]

Franky, little boy, the subject was that the movie presented a falsehood concerning the danger to aquifers from drilling natural gas. I presented cases where that had happened. You presented your usual unsupported yap-yap. Are you ever going to speak with more than adolescent maturity?

Is there a Consensus that drilling for gas is bad?

Has it been "peer reviewed"

What percent of the East Angelia Insane Clown Posse and Data Cooking Center supports a ban on drilling, 97%, 98%?

OK, I'll make my statement one more time, just so an immature mind like yours can have another go at understanding what I stated.

The lesson is rather simple. You don't use drilling methods that destroy aquifers, and you case the well in a manner that prevents leaks into the aquifers. If the well cannot produce enough gas to justify those measures, it is not worth developing.

 

[Intense]

Franky, little boy, the subject was that the movie presented a falsehood concerning the danger to aquifers from drilling natural gas. I presented cases where that had happened. You presented your usual unsupported yap-yap. Are you ever going to speak with more than adolescent maturity?

Is there a Consensus that drilling for gas is bad?

Has it been "peer reviewed"

What percent of the East Angelia Insane Clown Posse and Data Cooking Center supports a ban on drilling, 97%, 98%?

OK, I'll make my statement one more time, just so an immature mind like yours can have another go at understanding what I stated.

The lesson is rather simple. You don't use drilling methods that destroy aquifers, and you case the well in a manner that prevents leaks into the aquifers. If the well cannot produce enough gas to justify those measures, it is not worth developing.

What are we if we refuse to learn from our mistakes???