And you thought oil was a problem...

[Ruffhowse]

Josh Fox's documentary looks like a must see.....

"Theater and film director Josh Fox's documentary Gasland explores the new generation of natural gas drilling, which for a decade has been blasting its way east across the country, tapping shale formations from the Rockies to Pennsylvania, and is now expanding in New York. Fox is only 37, but he is a veteran explorer of complex themes from militarism to war to globalization and torture who skillfully blends artistry and social message. Gasland is more straightforward than Fox's earlier experimental mixes of theater, dance, music and film, but no less striking. Winner of the Special Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance, where it premiered in January, Gasland has been causing a stir wherever it has gone since. Now a national audience can see Josh Fox's film when it airs on HBO on Monday, June 21."

"In 2008, a gas company offered Fox $100,000 to lease his family's nineteen acres in Milanville, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of "hydraulic fracturing" to extract natural gas. He was baffled—what was hydraulic fracturing and what would leasing his land for fracking mean? To find out, he set out on a cross-country journey from his home in the pristine Upper Delaware River Basin to places where hydrofracking had already begun: Dimock, Pennsylvania; Pavillion, Wyoming; Weld County, Colorado; and Fort Worth, Texas."

"Fracking," (sometimes "fracing") as the combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling is widely called, bears little resemblance to conventional gas drilling in shallow reserves used to extract natural gas during the twentieth century. As Gasland deftly explains, fracking, which is now the dominant technology in US gas production, is elaborate and risky. Fracking involves extracting billions of gallons of water from lakes and rivers (2-4 million of gallons per well) and pressure-drilling a mix of the water, sand and chemicals more than a mile down into the earth and then miles horizontally. The sand and chemicals break up the dense rock to release methane, the compound comprising natural gas, which is pumped back up along with the fracking liquid, now infused not only with the chemical additives but heavy metals and radioactive material."


http://www.thenation.com/article/36385/onshore-drilling-disasters-waiting-happen-interview-gasland-director-josh-fox

[Empathic_1]

1. Vince

Diehl

Not an advocate. Just curious as to what take other more sentient beings than I may have on his stuff.

[mwdem]

2. It's going to be happening right across my neighborhood's street.

As a matter of fact, we're having 3 wells starting up around us. We got to vote on this, but they're going to go in anyway. If we don't want it, we don't get paid mineral rights. They supposeldly just drill arond us. I feel like we are so fucked. We are northeast of Ft. Worth..it's the Barnett Shale. The landmem would not answer any of our questions about benzene, and how fracturing the earth 3 way around us would affect us. We moved out here 5 years ago, knowing nothing about the Shale, and our real estate agents gave us no hint of what was coming. I can't wait to see this doc. on HBO.

[gateley]

3. That is so aggravating! I'm assuming there's some law on the books, courtesy

of our Republican friends, that allows them to do that. I just can't imagine the feeling of helplessness. I'm so sorry! :hug:

[mwdem]

5. If you don't want it, because the majority do,

then they supposedly drill around your land, and they do it anyway. My neighborhood thought they'd make some cash by letting them in. It's ugly, and going to get uglier.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

4. THE EXTRACTIVE GANG IS THE FOULEST AROUND

THIEVES BY ANY OTHER STANDARD

[TreasonousBastard]

6. The NY Times has been on the case for a while, and NY has been resisting...

fracking. So far.

No one knows how long we can hold out with the bags of cash being dangled around some of the poorer areas of the state, but since we're the last in line, we've seen what's happened to large swaths of Pennsylvania and don't like the idea one bit.

Here's the problem-- we all use a lot of gas. Just like we all use a lot of oil.

But, then we find out that getting the oil or gas cause some real problems. Just like getting coal does.

Finally, we just shut out eyers and ears, refusing to use less gas, oil, or coal, but still complain about the environmental effects.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

7. I've been mentioning this disaster (which is what is) so much that I hesitate to chime in again.

However, this was from yesterday but it is about the same topic so please feel free to check out the link in my signature line. It is one of the best sources that I've found.

The others are also informative, but the Donnan web site really puts it in a personal light.

This **** has to be stopped while some of us still have clean drinking water and streams, rivers and lakes with living organisms.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4431621&mesg_id=4432592

[WinkyDink]

8. I think my beloved PA is going to cave on this. We're used to being mined and drilled. And despoiled

Coal-miner's daughter and niece here.