Gasland a must see documentary now on HBO2

[INdemo]

about the people living around gas wells and polluted water thanks to Dick Cheney's/Republican energy bill of 2005

[Champion Jack]

1. This is a must see

It is happening all around here (WV)

[Orrex]

2. A sickening and saddening film. I also heard Josh Fox on NPR's Fresh Air about a month ago.

Worth digging out of their archives IMO.



I live in western PA, and gas wells are visible all over the place out here.

I applaud the film-maker for avoiding the temptation to go the Michael Moore route in creating this film. Moore willingly becomes a lightning rod in his films, which stirs the pot but can also distract from what the film is trying to convey.

Josh Fox exercises commendable restraint in filming; he's not afraid to appear on camera, but when he does so it serves to keep the discussion focused on the issue rather than on the film-maker.

[INdemo]

3. Obviously this has to be stopped..Leases canceled

This ground water contamination is the result of the secret energy bill that was drafted by oil companies and Dick Cheney and passed by the Republican controlled congress..And there are thousands of leases out there that have not been exercised yet and it is a very dangerous situation with the potential of polluting water ways across the US and along the eastern sea board

[Orrex]

4. In just the past month there have been at least two gas well explosions in Pennsylvania alone

And in the more recent case, the nearest specialists that were needed to extinguish the blaze were located in Texas.

If they're going to drill so many of these wells, they should at least be required to maintain a staff of first responders able to, you know, respond in the event of a disaster!

[INdemo]

16. All this destruction of property and people's lives is the

direct result of the Cheney/oil companies energy bill. Drafted behind closed doors and was passed without debate.Little has been done in Congress to remedy the effects of this legislative night mare.We need to organize and lobby congress to stop this now..
I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to have water trucked in on a regular basis..And nothing was said about bathing in that stuff..This has to be stopped.We need to call or email our Congressmen and Senators and get something in the works to stop this now.

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. Watch it for free on the internet

Its on youtube but at this site the youtube sequence plays through without clicking.


The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States.
The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a “Saudia Arabia of natural gas” just beneath us. But is fracking safe?
When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination.

A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND.

Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown.


http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/gasland/

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. Gasland the website.... what is Hydraulic Fracturing?

What is horizontal hydraulic fracturing?


Horizontal hydrofracking is a means of tapping shale deposits containing natural gas that were previously inaccessible by conventional drilling. Vertical hydrofracking is used to extend the life of an existing well once its productivity starts to run out, sort of a last resort. Horizontal fracking differs in that it uses a mixture of 596 chemicals, many of them proprietary, and millions of gallons of water per frack. This water then becomes contaminated and must be cleaned and disposed of.


What is the Halliburton Loophole?

In 2005, the Bush/ Cheney Energy Bill exempted natural gas drilling from the Safe Drinking Water Act. It exempts companies from disclosing the chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing. Essentially, the provision took the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) off the job. It is now commonly referred to as the Halliburton Loophole.
What is the Safe Drinking Water Act?

In 1974, the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) was passed by Congress to ensure clean drinking water free from both natural and man-made contaminates.



What is the FRAC Act?

The FRAC Act (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness to Chemical Act) is a House bill intended to repeal the Halliburton Loophole and to require the natural gas industry to disclose the chemicals they use.


How deep do natural gas wells go?

The average well is up to 8,000 feet deep. The depth of drinking water aquifers is about 1,000 feet. The problems typically stem from poor cement well casings that leak natural gas as well as fracking fluid into water wells.


How much water is used during the fracking process?

Generally 1-8 million gallons of water may be used to frack a well. A well may be fracked up to 18 times.


What fluids are used in the fracking process?

For each frack, 80-300 tons of chemicals may be used. Presently, the natural gas industry does not have to disclose the chemicals used, but scientists have identified volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene.

In what form does the natural gas come out of the well?

The gas comes up wet in produced water and has to be separated from the wastewater on the surface. Only 30-50% of the water is typically recovered from a well. This wastewater can be highly toxic.

What is done with the wastewater?

Evaporators evaporate off VOCs and condensate tanks steam off VOCs, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The wastewater is then trucked to water treatment facilities.
What is a well's potential to cause air pollution?


As the VOCs are evaporated and come into contact with diesel exhaust from trucks and generators at the well site, ground level ozone is produced. Ozone plumes can travel up to 250 miles.

http://gaslandthemovie.com/whats-fracking/

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. I'm watching it now and Wyoming now has worse air

than New York City


What Oil & Gas Drilling Looks Like from the Air, Wyoming







most of this is on BLM land or Public Land



http://trendhatch.com/what-oil-gas-drilling-looks-like-from-the-air-wyoming/

[XOKCowboy]

11. Go to Google Maps and look up Rifle CO

Switch to Satellite Vies and start looking just W and NW of Rifle. It looks like swiss cheese. We're doing our best to keep them out of the Roan Plateau.

I drove across WY on I80 a couple weeks ago and they're going nuts there also. This is all in the headwater drainage of the Green River. Just hoping they don't screw that up.

[Ichingcarpenter]

12. It is the biggest threat to America's aquifers and water in history

It is really worse than the Gulf or maybe on the same league.
I just finished watching online and the doc is fantastic as is the website.

I know Rifle use to date a fellow teacher I meet in grad school there.
What a shame.

It is really a huge rape of our public lands and THEY DON'T HAVE TO FOLLOW THE CLEAN WATER ACT AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS because of the 2005 Cheney gas Bill.

[Ichingcarpenter]

19. Rifle was used as a Nuclear underground test site and water

now coming up from fracturing is radioactive.

In 1969, a 40 megaton atomic bomb was detonated deep underground outside Rulison, Colorado to stimulate the release of natural gas1. This massive experiment was successful in that the gas was freed, but unfortunately it was too contaminated with radioactive isotopes from the blast to be useful. Today, fracking companies are back in the area of the Rulison blast2, which is no surprise given that many of the target "plays" for fracking, deep underground, themselves have naturally-occuring radioactivity far in excess of safe levels.


http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/nukes/ctbt/read9.html

http://nofracking.com/


http://www.idealist.ws/rulison.php

[XOKCowboy]

20. I never knew that!

Makes it even more scary....

[Ichingcarpenter]

22. Gasland needs to win an award it is one of the best

I've seen this year

It won at Sundance but I like to see an oscar nod.




Review

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stewart-nusbaumer/big-sky-doc-film-fest-
emg_b_467605.html


See it on youtube:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/gasland/

[Nite Owl]

7. Here's the link to

the take action page:

http://gaslandthemovie.com/take-action/overview

[XOKCowboy]

9. K&R for those who haven't seen it yet!

[Cresent City Kid]

10. When it first aired on HBO

The Rolling Stone Afghanistan article grabbed the headlines and our attention here at DU. Like the use of Corexit by BP, this is something we need to keep an eye on.

[logosoco]

13. I found this "accidently" a few weeks ago

it was very hard (as in sad and frustrating)to watch . If more people knew about the flammable water parts, maybe it would get better exposure. That part really blew my mind!
While I was watching, I kept getting the feeling that this movie was really about something that happened a long time ago, before we knew how harmful this stuff is. But, it's happening right now. Very scary!

[eppur_se_muova]

14. Oh ... at first I thought this was a doc'y on metaboric acid ... nt

[Subdivisions]

15. I watched it yesterday. Outrageous and disheartening. I saw my area of Texas

portrayed in the film. In fact, part of the film includes a scene from a car moving down a farm-to-market road just 3 miles from where I am sitting now.

The natural gas industry has turned our beautiful county into the familiar drilling pad pattern scene often in the film.



I just don't know what to do. I don't want to live like this. Those condensate tanks are everywhere. We've had earthquakes here for the first time in memory. I have no idea what kind of shape our water is in. You'll see we have our own lake, which is surrounded by frakking holes.

My first reaction was to order the film. Perhaps I should plan a showing or two of it at the local convention center or movie house. I have some research to do first because, frankly, I haven't heard much complaining about this locally, with the exception of myself. Surely I'm not the only one unhappy about our once-idyllic county being transformed into a giant industrial park. But, alas, what can I really do now? The pads are there and the damage is done and the condensate tanks continue to vent off their toxic vapors.

[RussBLib]

17. yet another example of our rapacious appetites

for energy. We are slowly killing ourselves and the planet. Like Fox said in the film..."Can't we just build some solar cells?!"

Or, it has been demonstrated that hemp can be used to produce almost every item that petroleum is used for today. We have the hemp answer right in front of us, but we aren't reaching out to it because of the insane drug war.

Support the Frac Act! http://www.propublica.org/article/frac-act-congress-introduces-bills-to-control-drilling-609

http://russblib.blogspot.com/

[lame54]

18. Are you sure it's not the latest Pauly Shore movie?

[XOKCowboy]

21. Affirming Gasland - Josh answers Gasland's critics point by point!

http://1trickpony.cachefly.net/gas/pdf/Affirming_Gasland_July_2010.pdf

Dear audience, press, and peers:
I have been overwhelmed by the amazing, positive responses to the film. From the incredible reviews, the
great HBO ratings, the effusive and impassioned response to our website and Facebook page, the powerful
responses of the news media and the thousands of audience members at sold-out community screenings, I
am humbled that Gasland has been so well received and is helping to bring the crisis of gas drilling in the
USA to greater attention.

Even before its release, the significance of the film was not lost on the gas industry. In the March 24th
edition of the Oil and Gas Journal, Skip Horvath, the president of the Natural Gas Supply Association said
that Gasland is “well done. It holds people’s attention. And it could block our industry.”

Although I am thoroughly dismayed and disappointed in the recent attacks on the veracity of Gasland and
on my credibility as a filmmaker and journalist by Energy-In- Depth and other gas-industry groups, I can’t
say that I am surprised.

snip

I am issuing the following point-by-point rebuttal of their claims, not because I feel obligated to address
what are clearly falsehoods and smear tactics, but to show the depth of the industry’s assault on the truth and
to point out their obfuscations, misleading spin on information, and attempts to shut down questions about
their practices. We will be continuing to do the work necessary to have the film seen as much as possible
and to offer the Gasland team’s expertise as we move forward.

It's a long PDF but a good read.

[H2O Man]

23. Great documentary.

Unsettling, and definitely worth watching.