"Gasland" Movie Explosive for Drilling Industry

by Anne Landman — June 23, 2010 - 3:10pm
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BP's oil-spewing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has raised people's awareness of the hazards of undersea drilling, and now a new movie called "Gasland" documents problems being created by natural gas wells being drilled on land across the U.S. The film's director, Josh Fox, tells how he was approached by a drilling company who offered him $100,000 to drill on his Pennsylvania property. The representative told him the ultimate result would be little more than a "fire hydrant in the middle of your field." Instead of jumping at the money, Fox started personally investigating the experiences people across the country have had with natural gas drilling, and a process known as hydrofracking (or "fracking") on their land. Beleaguered homeowners showed Fox their water -- cloudy, bubbling and fizzing right out of the faucet -- and told him how their kids got sick. One man told how his water well exploded spontaneously on January 1, 2009, after he allowed drilling on his land. The natural gas had pooled inside his well and his electric pump ignited it. In another scene, a man holds a lighter up to a stream of water coming out of his kitchen faucet. The water explodes into a fireball. Fox discovered chemicals like benzene, toluene and xylene had leached into people's household water, making them ill. The natural gas industry insists that such chemicals in water wells are naturally occurring. Fox tried to get interviews with the major natural gas drilling companies, but all refused.

Main Source: 
National Public Radio News Blog, June 21, 2010

Comments

My family survived gas pois. If you have ng furnace read this...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 17, 2010 - 4:04pm.

Way to go Josh for all your work to make Gasland !!! My story...

www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Lnaturalgas.htm

Marcellus Shale

Submitted by Rozmarija (not verified) on June 24, 2010 - 10:51am.

Yeah, well, I live about twenty miles from Mr Fox, have never met him. My immediae neighbors have signed up for gas exploration on their acreage. They are very bright people,. and figure they'll get enough money to be able to "get out" and live elsewhere without having to sell THEIR home. So, we are left to hope drilling doesn't have too close to our home too soon. We could try to sell ----

For other documentaries on

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 24, 2010 - 10:42am.

For other documentaries on this subject, definitely check out: Gas Odyssey http://www.gasodyssey.com/ and Haynesville http://www.haynesvillemovie.com/

Natural Gas companies try their own spin

Submitted by Mary B (not verified) on June 23, 2010 - 9:05pm.

The director's name is Josh, not Joel!

In any case, shortly before the movie aired on HBO, the organization "Energy In Depth" issued a "Gasland Debunked" article to discredit the film and its director, which does not address many of the facts.

http://www.energyindepth.org/2010/06/debunking-gasland/

An inquiry into who was handling the PR for Energy in Depth was detailed here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-grandia/who-are-the-spindoctors-b_b_621190.html?ref=twitter

I was linked to Energy in Depth on Twitter by an organization called CNG Now, approximately ten minutes after I had tweeted about Gasland. Whoever was controlling the CNG Now account was searching those tweeting about Gasland and subsequently sending them the link to the Debunking article. When I asked CNG Now who funds them, they replied they were mostly funded by Chesapeake Energy, the second largest natural gas producer in the US.

Apparently Energy in Depth has also been editing the commentary below the debunking article such that it only reflects supportive comments.

Spin doctors hard at work.

Thanks, Mary B!

Submitted by Lisa Graves on June 23, 2010 - 10:45pm.

Thanks for your thoughtful and helpful comment! I've alerted the author and we've corrected the typo. And, we really appreciate the analysis and references you included. Lisa