I recently went to see the new movie Promised Land starring Matt Damon, as rising star salesman Steve Butler. What does Steve sell? The promised glory to landowners if only they’ll sell off the rights to their land so the power companies can drill for natural gas on their property. Steve makes up figures and tosses out promises so some desperate landowners in western Pennsylvania are convinced they’ll become millionaires, if only they’ll allow the drilling. He doesn’t go into detail about the process, which is called fracking. Fracking allows drillers to go deep into the earth to extract natural gas. Recently, in states sitting on the rich resource, some homeowners have water so contaminated with chemicals they ignite.
The Associated Press published an article this past week that suggests the Environmental Protection Agency may be shying away from bringing charges against the companies using the method of “hydraulic fracturing.”
The article leads with this paragraph: WEATHERFORD, Texas (AP) — When a man in a Fort Worth suburb reported his family’s drinking water had begun “bubbling” like champagne, the federal government sounded an alarm: An oil company may have tainted their wells while drilling for natural gas.
But then the EPA changed its mind and decided to leave the company alone.
The movie Promised Land has been vilified by the natural gas industry for painting an unfair portrait of fracking. The Marcellus Shale Coalition even purchased ads to run before the movie. When we saw the movie, the ad played about ten minutes before the show so when the movie started, the ad was forgotten and not seen by the twenty or so folks who came in afterwards.
The industry says the process of fracking is safe. Scientists, environmentalists, and some who live close to the drilling sites say differently. It’s a dilemma, and one faced by Steve Butler in the movie once he begins to see his victims as real human beings he’s lying to. The fact is he doesn’t really know anything about the science behind the drilling. He’s just in their homes to sell a pipe dream.
It’s a complicated issue, and it needs much more study before we go any further. Even the Sierra Club first endorsed the process because they felt natural gas was the solution to ridding the world of “dirty coal.” But not anymore. Now they put fracking in the same category as coal mining.
The Promised Land is a work of fiction with a particular viewpoint that explores the dilemma of bringing natural gas up out of the ground fast and cheap. I’ve heard criticisms of the ending, but I’m not sure I understand why. I won’t give it away here because I’d like you to go see the movie and make up your own mind. It’s important to remember the movie is a fictional account of one man’s struggle between his job and his moral integrity. It’s up to him to decide if the two are mutually exclusive. And guess what? It ends the way the writer decided to end it. Period.
Living Lightly 
Come and have a read of my post about the fracking shebang on politicoid
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Come and have a read of my post about the fracking shebang on politicoid if ya like… a view from the UK
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Thanks for link. Good article. I hope my readers take the time to visit your site.
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Thanks for stopping by. I’ll come by from time to time to check your blog out
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Thanks.
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Talk to a geologist about fracking – they have no vested interest in oil or conservation – but they will explain what it is and what the side effects are then you can make the decision.l My daughter is a geologist and in now way is influenced by wither side of this argument – I’ve made the decision about fracking based on the scientific evidence geologists offer – and not from info offered from groups with an agenda.
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Thanks for stopping by, Daryl. I’d like to know more about your decision. I don’t know any geologists so any input here would be helpful. I’m sitting right on top of some of the richest sources of natural gas here in western PA. I try to keep an open mind, but as I tried to portray in my blog, it’s confusing and it’s a dilemma. Again, thanks for comments, but I hope you’ll stop by again and give more perspective.
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Isn’t that also why they tell us carbon capture is a good thing? Because they use it to frack? And then the tax payers have to pay for it. Can you imagine the extra energy they are burning up just to do this. It’s not on their dime so they don’t care. And I bet they don’t pay for the clean up either. It’s amazing what we put up with and pay for!
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I don’t have enough information to comment on that, but I do know that companies are waiting for the new head of the EPA to be appointed before going ahead with sanctions brought down under the former director. Some states don’t believe the EPA has any right to come in and tell them how to regulate; it’s the state’s jurisdiction. It’s a mess all the way around. But I would like to know why someone has bubbling water that can be set on fire. Why did that suddenly happen?
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A great article here. It is a pdf file.
Click to access factsheet-1110.pdf
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Thanks – very informative. I would like to see the counter-argument instead of one sentence statements such as “Fracking is safe.”
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Thank you for the recommendation. I will definitely put that movie on my “to see” list.
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It’s worth seeing. Thanks for dropping by, Kathy.
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I remember seeing a documentary about it on PBS, I think, quite a while ago. What I took away from it was that it was a very dangerous, difficult, and expensive way to drill for gas and that is what they were struggling with at that time. So, it sounds like things have progressed! (If you can call it progress.) I haven’t read the other links yet, but I will. Small wonder your health has been an issue lately. Just the stress alone can cause health problems.
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It’s changed over the years. Yes, moving to this part of the country has brought a multitude of issues into my life, but hopefully we’ll be able to live in Florida part of the time in a few years.
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Unfortunately I think that’s what I would do too: move, at least part of the time. The issue of oil independence is too big for anyone to fight.
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