for Gasland
(Josh Fox, 2010; 107 min)
(see film here)
Things to Look For:
· Connection to 11th Hour, Food, Inc., Morgan Spurlock’s Supersize Me, Christopher Walker’s Trinkets and Beads, and Michael Moore documentaries like Roger and Me
· Look up companies like Halliburton, Cabot Oil & Gas, EnCana, and the process called Hydraulic Fracturing
· Look up the relevant regulatory laws and acts: Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act
· Connection to the Love Canal incident from the mid-20th century, Hooker Chemical and the creation of the Superfund Act that followed as a response to the disaster
Discussion Questions:
1. Hydraulic Fracturing is a process that requires hundreds of chemicals, many of which are known carcinogens. The process infuses them into ground water to facilitate natural gas extraction. What are the risks and is it worth it to take these risks? What are the alternatives for this “clean energy”?
2. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 provided exemptions for the oil companies from the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. Why? Is there any reason besides the relation to Dick Cheney and his relation to Halliburton?
3. Dimock, Pennsylvania, Fort Lupton and Garfield County, Colorado, and Dish, Texas, are all sites where Natural Gas extraction had begun and residents were concerned. In each case after the drilling had begun, the drinking water was found to contain numerous hazardous chemicals--including methane (natural gas), and known carcinogens like benzene, glycol ether, and other hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOC’s). The water in these cases was (at least initially) declared safe by the industry and state agencies. Why would it take ordinary people turning into activists to question these official declarations?
4. Corporations and governmental agencies say there needs to be proof that there is contamination. Where should the burden of proof be in regards to whether injecting known carcinogens into water might have hazardous human consequences? Should agencies like the FDA and the EPA require the industry to prove their products and conduct are not going to be hazardous before going forth? (Hint: remember the Precautionary Principle.)
5. The Jonah Gas Fields, which are next to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, are on public lands opened up for private use through the efforts of Dick Cheney. Bureau of Land Management manages public lands, yet allowed this to happen. Why? Consider its stated mission. Is this private use good for the public? Consider the benefits versus the costs.
6. The chemicals used in the fracking process are considered proprietary information, like McDonald’s “special sauce.” Is this a reasonable protection, or a rationalization for a cover-up? Theo Colborn (also appeared in 11th Hour and famous for her work endocrine disorders) is the reason we know what’s in the Halliburton formula. Why did it take a person with this much zeal and skill to find out what’s in it?
7. Comment on the corporate model of development as described in the film by a resident near Divide Creek: develop the area as fast as possible, then, if you trash it, make the residents prove it, fight it in a court of law, and buy out the last person standing. Is this a fair description of their process? Compare to the model for oil exploration described in Trinkets and Beads.
8. The mayor of Dish, Texas (named after the Dish Network, and a site of natural gas pipeline) reported carcinogenic VOC’s in the town’s atmosphere at levels well beyond safe limits. Comment on his assessment of the Clean Air Act’s limitation: small point sources, no matter how numerous are not flagged for violation because of the individual sites meet safe level requirements; only large point sources are flagged. How might the regulation be rewritten to fix this problem?