My Response to FrackNation: Ball's in your court Gasland
By Keith Mauck
Well, that was the best $20 I’ve spent in awhile.
Last night, after 2 ½ years of laboring under the HBO-induced nightmare of “Gasland,” the other side of the fracking story premiered on AXS TV, a relatively obscure cable channel, unfortunately. The documentary “FrackNation” takes viewers on a journey with journalist Phelim McAleer as he seeks the truth about fracking that environmentalists and their Hollywood friends won’t tell.
The documentary isn’t likely to be covered in many mainstream media outlets, but it was a hit with “the people” long before premiere night. They funded its production through more than $200,000 in small-dollar, online donations. Full disclosure. Yours truly threw in $20 to help the cause.
“This is a film about people, and it will be funded by people,” McAleer said. “... Clearly the truth about fracking is something they wanted but weren’t getting.”
“FrackNation” actually is a response to “Gasland,” the 2010 anti-fracking documentary that inspired the storyline in “Promised Land,” and “Gasland” director Josh Fox is McAleer’s nemesis. “FrackNation” opens and closes with confrontations between the two.
In between those bookends, the film explores both the positive economic impact of fracking and the negative reaction of environmentalists to the drilling technique – and to anyone who dares question the green narrative about it.
The “FrackNation” storyline centers around Dimock, Pa., a rural town of about 1,400 dubbed “A Colossal Fracking Mess” by Vanity Fair and frequented by celebrities looking to score environmental points.
McAleer visits the town and the surrounding countryside to challenge the assumption that fracking is responsible for polluting the water there and to scold environmentalists for killing the dreams of struggling communities and farmers. The documentary also undercuts charges that fracking may cause earthquakes and cancer.
In that sense, “FrackNation” is like the first two documentaries McAleer and his wife, Ann McIlhenney, produced. “Mine Your Own Business” rebutted environmental arguments against gold mining in impoverished Romania, and “Not Evil Just Wrong” disputed global warming claims that could cost jobs in the American heartland.
McAleer and McIlhenney – joined by Magdalena Segieda as a co-director of “FrackNation – clearly relish the role of spoiler to the environmental movement. And they are quite good at it. From Fox to a public official with ties to him to landowners Craig and Julie Sautner. Whenever McAleer corners them with hard facts contrary to their anti-fracking attacks, they waver between passivity and hostility.
At one point in an apparently chance meeting on a rural road, Julie Sautner showed her gun permit to McAleer and implied that she was about to show him the business end of the gun that went with it. She later called the police on him and made him out to be the bad guy, even though the footage shows otherwise.
“FrackNation” masterfully casts the crew of unlovable, anti-fracking characters against everymen like Ron White, a dairy farmer who has a gas pad 400 yards from his barn.
“I feel good about that,” White says. “I like to stand in the barn and see what’s making money out here. … Since the gas came along, this is the best cow on the farm. I make the most money on this cow and don’t have to buy any grain for it.”
At a minimum, open-minded viewers of “FrackNation” will finish the film more skeptical of the environmentalists and celebrities who decry fracking. And odds are good that they will leave the show as firmly in the pro-fracking camp as the directors are. An achievement the Oil and Gas Industry has been unable to accomplish despite their $100 million high-gloss campaigns.
Josh Fox, as we used to say on the basketball courts of Indiana, “Your Ball!”
Note: The documentary will rebroadcasted on AXS TV on January 26th at 12
PM and February 2nd at 10AM EST. Or, the DVD is available for purchase on Fracknation’s website.
Views: 6138
Comment
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Comment by Golddigger on January 23, 2013 at 11:24pm
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If breaking away from foreign oil dependency, which is mainly the underlined reason for wars, terrorism, the financial state of our country, and political corruption, then count me in as a PRO GASSER!!! Is there going to be bumps along the way, as technology catches up and isolated mistakes happen? Absolutely, but the positives far out weigh the negatives. Do we ban automobiles from the highway and go back to the horse & buggy because we haven't figured out how to stop traffic fatalities? Not tapping into our own natural resources would be a major crime and failure of our elected leaders of this country. I can only hope and pray that someday my grandchildren will be proud to be an American and still the world leader in technology and independence. Pro Gasser (or whatever you want to call it Scott) and proud of it.
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Comment by Richard Droske on January 23, 2013 at 9:17pm
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I have always wondered about how many peoples wells were already polluted and then they jumped on the anti-frack band wagon to get undeserved compensation. Relying on wells for drinking water has never been a great idea. Many are affected by natural gas or worse without any help from drilling.
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Comment by Scott Cannon on January 23, 2013 at 5:35pm
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Sorry Melissa, you are incorrect. This is a link confirming a case of "fracking" contaminating water. http://www.arcticgas.gov/2012/alberta-determines-fracking-fluid-lea... There is also one pending in Pavillion Wyoming. As for the whole gas drilling process, and I know you won't admit it, but there are hundreds of docummented cases of ground water being contaminated by leaky casings, spills, and blowouts. The PA DEP should really be tracking exactly how many water wells have had problems, but until they start, there is plenty of evidence out there. As for wells being safe since 1946, here is a DEP program to spot problem, leaking abandon wells. There are 550 in Pennsylvania that are on their problematic list, so that statement you made is incorrect as well.. http://www.fractracker.org/2011/06/problems-with-abandoned-and-orph...
Are you saying the DEP was wrong when they found Cabot responsible for methane migration in 18 wells? http://files.dep.state.pa.us/OilGas/OilGasLandingPageFiles/FinalCO&...
This is the problem I have with you pro gassers. You keep saying us activists are spreading false information, but you are guilty of doing it yourselves.
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Comment by melissa humphrey on January 23, 2013 at 4:18pm
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Not to fire this up but by miles the film shows how backwards the media is and proves public demand for disaster is high.
Do mud methane levels rise with drilling? Probably but hardly the point.
There is NOt a single case where fracing has caused harm to anyone's water, since fracing began in 1946. One would assume some problems and cost in human harm, but there is none.
Those who know better may have bought Cabot Oil and Gas when wrongly kept from drilling summer 2010.
Today Cabot produces 1 billion cubic feet today and is up 400% since sept 2012.
Find truth and act or don't.
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Comment by George Brown on January 23, 2013 at 2:39pm
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It was a very well done documentary. I too contributed to help have it made.
As for Josh Fox, he's simply an opportunist trying to make a buck. He doesn't know jack about anything but making $$$. Good for him, but for those who would believe his propaganda, you need to get a life!
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Comment by Christopher Meehan on January 23, 2013 at 12:48pm
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I watched it last nite as I am a land owner in Tioga co. PA. There is a lot of truth to it and it points out that Fox told many fibs. I am sure fracking is not 100% safe but it is not as bad as Gasland made it out to be. Some land in the US is already a toxic dump since North America became a continent, its called nature.
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Comment by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher) on January 23, 2013 at 12:45pm
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I didn't deny anything Scott. I just don't think you understand the point of the documentary. I think you'd like everyone to handle Gasland with kid gloves.
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The information I provided didn't have much to do with the content of the film, exept Mrs. Suatner's reaction to McAleer, which I did see in the trailor for the movie. I stated comments I know as fact and you deny them, just as you do everything not pro gas, and until both sides see both the benefit and the dangers, there will be no middle. Thanks for contributing to no middle ground.
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Comment by Ruth Ann Runyan on January 23, 2013 at 12:36pm
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Fox and Friends this morning said that "Promised Land" has yet to make enough money to cover the cost of production. Maybe someone should contact one of Fox and Friends producers and see if they would be willing to view "FrackNation for their opinion and maybe promotion.
Ruth
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Comment by Utica Shale on January 23, 2013 at 12:22pm
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AXS TV is CH 340 on Directv satellite
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