The Real Promised Land Scores on Facebook
Perusing Facebook yesterday we noticed something. EID's "The Real Promised Land" Facebook page has surpassed the film's official Facebook page in popularity. Proving online what the box office has already borne out in communities across the U.S. Namely, that the real stories of ordinary Americans and natural gas development are more appealing than the false narrative of a Hollywood actor who thinks hydraulic fracturing “poisons human relationships.”
Tom
EID-Marcellus Campaign Manager
Perusing Facebook yesterday we noticed something rather incredible. The story is best told with screenshots of the official Promised Land movie Facebook page and our Real Promised Land page. First, here is the movie Facebook page yesterday, January 8, 2013:
10,717 Likes
Notice the number of “likes” and the count of Facebook users talking about the movie Facebook page. The movie has garnered 10,717 likes and 5,883 people are talking about it. This is, bear in mind, a movie that cost $15 million to produce.
Now, take a look at The Real Promised Land, Energy In Depth’s Facebook page showing “real Americans, real stories, no scripts,” which was produced by one our staffers working with a budget only slightly larger than $1.98, using videos of (and contributed by) ordinary Americans:
10,729 Likes
Well, how about that? EID’s little Facebook page of real Americans in the real promised land has garnished a dozen more likes than a Matt Damon movie page. Not only that, but our page has 1,174 more folks talking about it.
It looks like the real stories of ordinary Americans and natural gas development are more appealing than the false narrative of some Hollywood actor who thinks hydraulic fracturing “poisons human relationships.”
My faith in humanity is restored. Congratulations, also, to those folks in the back office who developed this page. I hope they don’t learn Matt Damon gets $10 million per film. Then again, the way the movie is selling, Matt Damon may be taking IOU’s.
Key Democrats to Sierra Club: You’re Wrong about Natural Gas
As a fuel source, natural gas represents a rare combination of benefits: Affordable, abundant, and clean. The Sierra Club is spending big bucks trying to deny these facts, but even some of their typical allies are distancing themselves from that effort.
As a fuel source, natural gas represents a rare combination of benefits: Affordable, abundant, and clean. The White House has acknowledged this on several occasions, touting also the enormous job creation potential that responsible natural gas development can deliver.
But for some, denying the facts about natural gas has become a profitable enterprise. The most notable example? The Sierra Club, which recently launched its “Beyond Natural Gas” campaign to stop development of this important source of energy. Ironically, it was also the Sierra Club that was touting the environmental benefits of natural gas just a few short years ago, back when natural gas was expensive and considered in short supply — we’ll let our readers extrapolate the meaning of that.
Nonetheless, the facts are still the facts, and it’s telling that the Sierra Club’s new efforts against natural gas not only butt heads with well-established scientific facts about the processes used to extract it, but also with folks that they used to consider their allies — including President Obama, whom the Sierra Club has cheerfully endorsed for reelection. The United Nations has even pointed out that expanded natural gas use can help the world’s poor and foster a cleaner global environment.
And just this week, the Sierra Club received even more pushback (subs. req’d) for its activism against natural gas, this time from Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
Discussing specifically the Sierra Club’s anti-natural gas campaign, Rep. Markey delivered a fairly clear rebuke: “I think environmentalists should want natural gas on the table as an option,” Markey said, adding later that he thinks it would “be wise for us to not take natural gas off the table.”
When Sen. Wyden was asked about the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Natural Gas” campaign, he issued a similarly unequivocal rejection: “This is what I tell environmental folks: Natural gas is really important to a lot of renewables, solar and wind, ensuring that option is out there.” In describing the environmental benefits, Wyden added: “Natural gas is the cleanest of the fossil fuels, so you start with that as your basic proposition.”
So for those keeping score at home, those acknowledging the safety and benefits of natural gas development include President Obama, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy (note: large PDF), state regulators from across the country, independent experts from respected universities, and now even prominent members of Congress who are widely recognized for their work on environmental issues. Heck, even a study funded by the Sierra Club found natural gas to be a comparatively clean source of energy.
On the other side? Hollywood, Josh Fox, and the Sierra Club.
Gee, I wonder who we should believe?
