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: 6142
Comment
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Comment by Kathleen on January 28, 2013 at 5:36am
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To Scott cannon,
We had nice clear water here until strip mining came in, now I have black water on an off. My water well guy came out and told me this is coal dust and a product of the mining but the mining co. will never do anything about it since I was more than 500 ft away. I still strongly feel strip mining is the most destructive way to get to our resources.
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Comment by Scott Cannon on January 25, 2013 at 2:04am
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Lynn, please show the links to the facts you are spouting off to back up your claims. At least I give you the courtesy of backing up everything I say with the proper documents. You can deny all you want, but at least, back it up with evidence.
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Comment by Richard Droske on January 24, 2013 at 6:35pm
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To get that pure water you all speak of you had to drill a well. If you are over the shale might you have drilled through it to get to water? Did you take the precautions that the gas companies do?
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Comment by Richard Droske on January 24, 2013 at 6:26pm
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People who think that water they get from a well is somehow automatically pure and fresh are deluding themselves. Many have been consuming polluted water since the well was drilled and now want to blame it on fracking. Show that you had your water tested prior to any drilling activity. If, as almost all, you did not you are just blaming the poor quality that your water has always had on someone else.
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Comment by lynn on January 24, 2013 at 5:50pm
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Your statement is correct Melissa. Cabot has been cleared in Dimock. In Wyoming the dept of natural resources came in and retested the water and found no problem. When they studied the epa's testing system they discovered that epa's equipment was contaminated and that was where the contamination in their results came from, not from the drilling or fracing. When you read the articles Scott referenced the contamination was coming from old wells-not new ones. Bet the regulations now are a lot different than they were in the 1800's. I've talked to a lot of people in areas where drilling is heavy. They all say about the same thing-there are inconveniences like traffic and noise but they also say that the o&g companies are trying hard to be good neighbors.
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Comment by Richard Droske on January 24, 2013 at 12:04pm
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And you who claim your water has been harmed or will be harmed have documentation to prove you have had it tested and proved safe in the past? Or did you just assume it was fine, no methane no radium etc. until you had an opportunity to profit from false claims that fracking caused the problems? Relying on well water has never been a safe proposition and unless you took precautions in the past you have no cause to suddenly cry foul.
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Well said, Keith, regarding "...hasn't seen the video...", LMAO. Too, I have a hard time trying to buy into someone who uses "... cause taps to be lit on fire..." for an intelligent conversation when flammable water(?) is so much better as a descriptive; otherwises, weez jes' mite all gets dem dumb ol' fax outa da way and jes' jaw a li'l bit 'bout hows we feels instead o' lookin' at da science o' it all, know wha' I mean? (TIC); not to mention using outdated journalistic (read liberal) articles instead of studies.
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Comment by Richard Droske on January 24, 2013 at 8:36am
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Relying on wells without purification technology has never been a good idea, Personally I suspect Cabot is being used to repair problems that existed long before drilling began and is agreeing only to stifle false negative publicity.
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Please re read my comment. I made no mention of current water quality in Dimock.
The DEP ordered Cabot to fix the well casings and not to drill or frack in a 9 square mile radius of the wells they contaminated in Dimock since 2010, so of course the methane had 3 years to dissipate. They let them recently frack the wells they already drilled but still aren’t allowed to drill new ones. As for the water quality today? It didn’t take Cabot long to screw up again. Read this incident report from a month ago from Cabot to the National Response Center.
http://www.nrc.uscg.mil/reports/rwservlet?standard_web+inc_seq=1033706
“DESCRIPTION OF INCIDENT: CALLER IS REPORTING A RELEASE OF AN UNKNOWN MATERIAL FROM A GAS WELL THAT THE RESPONSIBLE PARTY WAS FRACKING AND IT HAS CAUSED THE WATER AT THEIR PRIVATE RESIDENCE TO TURN BLACK.”
Until you folks admit there are serious problems and help us fix them, this will keep going 'round and 'round.
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Scott, apparently the wells you mention are now fine. http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/07/epa_says_dimock_...
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