Market Rate for Bald-Faced Lies About Hydraulic Fracturing? $7,500.
Earlier this week, after hobnobbing with Hollywood’s elite, New York City filmmaker Josh Fox made the trek to Conway, Arkansas to spread misinformation about the responsible development of clean-burning, job-creating American natural gas development.
(facebook.com/gaslandmovie; accessed 2/3/11)
At a Hendrix College panel on Tuesday, sponsored by the school’s Environmental Concerns Committee, the Gasland director, true to form, lodged a host of unfounded claims about hydraulic fracturing. “Some critics doubt some of Fox’s finding, but he stands by his research,” reports KATV.
And speaking of critics, John Hanger, who served as the top environmental watchdog under former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and previously as president of the state’s leading environmental organization, PennFuture, has been less than shy about this sentiments toward Josh Fox and his hatched job of a documentary. In the lead up to the Oscars, the former Department of Environmental Protection secretary writes this on his blog about Gasland’s bogus and debunked claims regarding shale gas development:
The film presents a selective, distorted view of gas drilling and the energy choices America faces today. If Gasland were about the airline industry, every flight would crash and all airlines would be irresponsible. … Gasland treats cavalierly facts both by omitting important ones and getting wrong others.
While Gasland “is dedicated to the non-profit organization Damascus Citizens for Sustainability,” according to the film’s Wikipedia page, director Josh Fox is demanding top-dollar for appearances.
In minutes from a November Hendrix College Student Senate meeting, it’s noted that Fox’s “original standard fee is $7,500, but the lowest he will go is $5,000.” In addition to the requested fee, Fox requested airfare from, yes, New York City. Clearly the most logical region for any Pennsylvanian to travel through. This from the minutes:
Requesting: $5,304.20
For: Speaker Josh Fox, director and creator of GasLand
When and where this event will occur: Worsham, next semester
Master Calendar Confirmation: Dependent on Josh Fox’s schedule
Details: We want to show the movie GasLand about natural gas drilling. This is a pertinent issue to the students at Hendrix and the community of Conway. … The ECC will pay for the film rights and Josh’s food and lodging.
Budget Breakdown:
$304.20 – Roundtrip flight from New York City to Little Rock, AR
$5,000 – Josh Fox’s fee
His original standard fee is $7,500, but the lowest he will go is $5,000.
But hey, it’s not as if “America’s Enemies Don’t Want U.S. Drilling,” right?
On Wastewater and The New York Times
WASHINGTON – Earlier today, the HBO film GasLand, produced by Manhattan-based stage director and anti-natural gas activist Josh Fox, was nominated by the Academy Awards for an Oscar in the documentary feature category. Subsequent to the announcement, Energy In Depth executive director Lee Fuller issued the following statement:
“While it’s unfortunate there isn’t an Oscar category for propaganda, this nomination is fitting, as the Oscars are aimed at praising pure entertainment among Hollywood’s elite. Without doubt, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated Gasland for its work in the field of art, not science.
“As responsible, job-creating American oil and natural gas development, enabled by environmentally-proven hydraulic fracturing, continues to drive economic growth and strengthen our nation’s energy security, we have a responsibility to appeal to science and facts. This film, however, as a host of independent environmental regulators have confirmed, fails woefully short of these fundamental objectives.”
MORE INFO DEBUNKING GASLAND
EID Fact-Check: Debunking GasLand (Fact Sheet)
Frm. PADEP Sec. John Hanger: GasLand’s Josh Fox is a “Propagandist”
- “In an interview with The Inquirer on Wednesday, [DEP secretary John] Hanger was harshly critical of Fox, whom he called a ‘propagandist.’”
- “Hanger dismissed Gasland…as ‘fundamentally dishonest’ and ‘a deliberately false presentation for dramatic effect.’”
Fact-Check: Colorado State Regulatory Office Debunks Gasland
Denver Business Journal: “In Colorado, COGCC officials have said repeatedly that the state agency — after years of testing — has never found a link between fracking and groundwater contamination.” (11/1/10)
Financial Times: Claims in the film are “Absurd”
- “By failing to evaluate the claims of his interviewees more carefully, he has left himself open to the kind of takedown carried out by Energy In Depth.”
- “There are key problems with the film’s claims.”
- “Fox’s defence for any lack of rigour was that he wanted to start a debate, rather than have the last word. But that doesn’t absolve him of the responsibility to thoroughly check his claims. … This is absurd.”
Longtime NYT Editor, Columnist on GasLand: “One-sided, flawed … in the Michael Moore mode”
Towanda (PA) Daily Review: “If you want a relatively quick overview of the natural gas phenomenon, watch the 60 Minutes program. And by way of contrast, see “Gasland” and learn for yourself the difference between a responsible report and a hatchet job.” (Editorial, 1/19/10)
Wash. Examiner Columnist: “Gasland is more agit-prop than factual documentary”
Rocky-Mountain Lie: State of Colorado Debunks Josh Fox and GasLand
A longtime New York Times editor says Gasland is “one-sided, flawed,” and done “in the Michael Moore mode”. A “propagandist” is how the top environmental watchdog in Pennsylvania, Dept. of Environmental Protection secretary John Hanger, described Gasland’s Josh Fox. And the reviews just keep rolling in.
The latest one? This week the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) – yes, the official, state oil and gas regulatory body of Colorado, presided over by Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter – issued a document debunking a host of groundless claims lodged in the film Gasland, particularly about the 60 year old energy stimulation technology known as hydraulic fracturing.
For context, here’s COGCC’s chief mission:
- The efficient exploration and production of oil and gas resources in a manner consistent with the protection of public health, safety and welfare
- The prevention of waste
- The protection of mineral owners’ correlative rights
- The prevention and mitigation of adverse environmental impacts
Here are key experts from COGCC’s ‘Gasland Correction Document’:
- “[W]e concluded that Mike Markham’s and Renee McClure’s wells contained biogenic gas that was not related to oil and gas activity. Unfortunately, Gasland does not mention our McClure finding and dismisses our Markham finding out of hand.”
- “Indeed, the water well completion report for Mr. Markham’s well shows that it penetrated at least four different coal beds. The occurrence of methane in the coals of the Laramie Formation has been well documented … dating back more than 30 years.”
- “Based on these results, the COGCC has concluded that the gas seep on Ms. Bracken’s property resulted from the fermentation of organic matter by methanogenic bacteria. This is not uncommon in wetland areas, such as those that exist along West Divide Creek.”
Hydraulic fracturing – which has been safely used to stimulate oil and natural gas production in the United States more than 1.1 million times – has never been credibly proven to impact groundwater: not in Colorado, Pennsylvania, or in any other energy-producing state. And that’s no accident. This critical, proven and tightly regulated technology is effectively regulated by individual energy producing states. And without it, enormous amounts of job-creating, homegrown oil and natural gas reserves would remain out of reach. Understand that, and now you understand the true motivation of Josh Fox.
Fact-Check: Joe Sestak’s Claims on HF, Marcellus Jobs Conflict with Reality
In recent Senate debate, PA congressman rattles off debunked talking points from anti-HF fringe groups
Keep Reading »
PA DEP Continues to Confirm the Fact that Hydraulic Fracturing Has Never Impacted Groundwater
The tightly-regulated, 60 year-old energy stimulation technology call hydraulic fracturing – which has been used safely more than 1.1 million times throughout the United States – has never in its history been found to adversely impact sources of underground drinking water. Independent scientific experts and state regulators from energy-producing confirm this fact, over and over again. A national organization of state groundwater water regulators has, as well. This year, the EPA told Congress that hydraulic fracturing has never resulted in a single case of groundwater contamination.
And in Pennsylvania, where the responsible development of the Marcellus Shale’s abundant, clean-burning natural gas reserves – enabled by fracture stimulation technologies coupled with horizontal drilling – are helping to put tens of thousands to work, top environmental regulators also continue to ensure that these critical facts are known.
Here’s a quick and recent snapshot of what PA DEP is saying about hydraulic fracturing’s long and clear record of environmental safety:
“Jennifer Means, a representative from the state DEP’s Eastern Oil and Gas Region Office in Williamsport, later substantiated Mr. Chacon’s statements. ‘So far it has not been our experience that the fracking process has caused any water-supply issues,’ Ms. Means said.” (Scranton Times-Tribune, 10/20/10)
“Thus far, the DEP says they’ve found not one instance of underground contamination of well water from fracking. ‘We haven’t had frack fluid come back from thousands of feet down and get into people’s drinking water supply,’ [DEP secretary John] Hanger said.” (KDKA-TV, 10/16/10)
“‘It’s our experience in Pennsylvania that we have not had one case in which the fluids used to break off the gas from 5,000 to 8,000 feet (1,500-2,400 m) underground have returned to contaminate ground water,’ said John Hanger, secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).” (Reuters, 10/1/10)
FRAC Act supporters claim that fracturing is unregulated and unsafe, and therefore Congress must fundamentally rewrite federal law to give EPA outright authority to oversee this process. Inherently, though, energy-producing states are best situated to regulate this technology, and the 60 year track record of environmental safety underscores that fact. Put simply, the FRAC Act is yet another Washington ‘solution’ in search of a problem.
Backyard Brawl: WVU, Pitt Profs. Confirm Hydraulic Fracturing’s Environmental Safety Record
AP: “The number of millionaires in ND rose by more than 40 percent in one year alone”, thanks to fracturing
Last week, PA’s DEP secretary, John Hanger, once again confirmed the fact that hydraulic fracturing has never impacted groundwater, a fact that a host of PADEP officials continue to reinforce. And last night, in a KDKA-TV segment, Sec. Hanger once again confirmed that fact that fracturing – a tightly regulated, 60 year-old technology used to stimulate oil and natural gas production – has never contaminated groundwater, which is what top EPA officials told a U.S. Senate panel this year.
And earlier this week, Radisav Vidic – a University of Pittsburgh professor with a Ph.D. in environmental engineering – told the Wheeling News Register that he has “not seen any evidence that fracturing itself poses a danger to the environment. The process has been around since the 1950s.”
Not to be outdone, though, West Virginia University’s Donald Lyons, an engineering professor, writes about the economic potentials of responsible Marcellus Shale development, fracturing’s long and clear record of safety, and the devastating impact that the FRAC Act could have on job creation and domestic energy production in a Charleston Gazette op-ed this week entitled “Natural gas means more jobs”:
Underlying West Virginia is the Marcellus Shale, which is another great source of natural gas. Last year, shale-gas drilling in the Marcellus provided 57,000 new jobs — mainly here in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. An economic study estimated that drilling throughout the Marcellus Shale, which extends from Kentucky to upstate New York, could create 280,000 new jobs and add $6 billion in tax revenues over the next decade.
State agencies do a commendable job of overseeing the process of hydraulic fracturing, a technology that has been used for decades to produce oil and natural gas, to assure the process is done safely and without a negative impact on the environment.
Opponents of shale-gas drilling … want regulatory oversight to be shifted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is conducting a study of hydraulic fracturing practices at the direction of Congress. But adding one more layer of bureaucratic red tape will stall natural gas production by raising drilling costs by as much as $100,000 per well, without making shale-gas production any safer than it already is. This could force most of the independent companies that account for the bulk of natural gas production to shut down their operations. In that event, gas production would drop 45 percent within five years, according to an industry study, and thousands of jobs would be lost. Shale gas production should be increased, not decreased.
So what does the public think about this historic opportunity? Well, according to a Lycoming College poll released yesterday, folks in the communities where Marcellus production is underway overwhelmingly support this activity and believe strongly – nearly 80 percent – that “the creation of many jobs was very likely.”
But hydraulic fracturing is not just helping to create thousands of good-paying jobs, stable supplies of homegrown energy for consumers, and much-needed economic activity in the Rust Belt exclusively. In North Dakota, through the responsible development the Bakken Shale’s abundant, job-creating oil reserves, small towns are expected to “double in the next 5 years,” according to a WDAY news report this week. This from their dispatch under the headline “Workers needed to fill thousands of jobs in western North Dakota”:
Williston’s Economic Development Executive Director Tom Rolfstad says the surge out west is not an oil boom, but an oil industry, saying it isn’t going away anytime soon. He expects Williston and other western towns in the Bakken Shale to double in the next 5 years. It’ll leave them in need of everything from oil workers, to doctors, bakers, and waitresses.
It’s a problem much of the country would like to have. Tom Rolfstad is pleading for workers.
“We need a lot of help! How are we going to grow this fast?” He says he needs thousands of people. It’s part of the “Invest in the West to Fund the Rest” campaign. Rolfstad and other economic development leaders are trying to get more North Dakota workers out west to fill about 3-thousand jobs.
The Associated Press also reports on the incredible amount of economic opportunity, job creation and prosperity that fracturing is helping to make possible for North Dakotans:
In recent years, oil companies have been extracting oil from the Bakken shale deposit, the largest such formation ever surveyed in the United States by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The number of millionaires in North Dakota rose by more than 40 percent in one year alone, to 388 in 2006.
What does Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection secretary and a University of Pittsburgh environmental engineering have in common? They both understand the facts regarding the 60 year-old energy stimulation technology called hydraulic fracturing, which has been used safely to enhance oil and natural gas production in more than 1.1 million wells nationwide without every contaminating groundwater — and aren’t afraid to let these facts be known.
John Hanger, Gov. Rendell’s PA DEP chief and former Penn Future executive, notes that the media (err Josh Fox & CNN) are overestimating “the risks of hydraulic fracturing.” Sec. Hanger tells Reuters, under the headline “Pennsylvania regulator says shale gas drilling method safe,” this about fracturing, which has helped create nearly 88,000 jobs through the development of the Commonwealth’s clean-burning natural gas resources trapped in the Marcellus Shale formation over just the past few years:
Pennsylvania’s chief environmental regulator said on Friday he saw no evidence that the chemicals used in the shale gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing contaminates underground water supplies.
“It’s our experience in Pennsylvania that we have not had one case in which the fluids used to break off the gas from 5,000 to 8,000 feet underground have returned to contaminate ground water,” Hanger said.
Hanger’s comments echo frequent statements by energy companies that there have been no proven cases of water contamination from hydraulic fracturing, a process used to remove natural gas from shale beds deep underground.
Hanger said the public and the media appear to overestimate the risks of hydraulic fracturing. “There’s a lot of focus in the media and the public on the problems that we have not had,” he said during an hour-long interview in his office.
But Sec. Hanger is not alone in ensuring that these critical facts about fracturing’s long and clear record of environmental safety are made available to the public. Under the headline “Pitt Professor Says Fracking Safe, Decades-Old Process,” the Wheeling News Register reports this:
[Radisav] Vidic, professor of environmental engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, said this form of rock fracturing has been used for decades to extract minerals – and with no direct side effects.
“I have not seen any evidence that fracturing itself poses a danger to the environment,” he said. “The process has been around since the 1950s. If everything is followed correctly and done by the book, the impact should be minimal.”
And from Central Pennsylvania to Eastern Wyoming, and many places along the way, fracture stimulation technology is to continuing to serve as a key component to energy and economic security for thousands of communities, and for our nation.
Here’s a quick look at what they’re saying about America’s oil and natural gas industry:
- Taking responsibility: “Three companies with local Marcellus Shale drilling sites took state Fish and Boat commissioners on a field tour through Lycoming County Sunday, showing some of the methods in place to protect the environment and local wildlife, keep nearby residents happy and collaborate with one another to keep improving practices. Chief Oil & Gas, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Range Resources led a tour of sites in Mifflin, Watson and Cummings townships, where the shale is in various stages of extraction. (Williamsport (PA) Sun-Gazette, 10/4/10)
- More oil rigs popping up around Cheyenne: “More oil rigs are popping up around Cheyenne, and a few rigs 50 miles north of town probably have reached their target, the Niobrara Shale. So how much oil is down there? If anyone knows yet, mum’s the word. … They’re betting that a combination of drilling techniques can unlock oil from the Niobrara. The shale formation is similar to the Bakken Shale in western North Dakota, scene of booming oil production for the past few years. (Associated Press, 10/3/10)
- Drilling will help stimulate economy: “Hydraulic fracturing is a proven technology that is regulated at the state level. It involves pumping a water mixture into underground rock layers where oil and natural gas is trapped. This mixture is 99 percent water and contains a small amount of fracturing fluid and sand. The additives used in fracturing fluids are used in many household products, including toothpaste, cosmetics and even ice cream. These additives are diluted with water by a factor as high as 122 times before being pumped into the ground, according to federal studies. In fact, studies by the U.S. EPA and the Ground Water Protection Council have confirmed no direct link between hydraulic fracturing operations and groundwater impacts. (Charlottesville Daily Progress, 10/4/10)
- Property owners stump for drilling rights at Wayne County barbecue: “The constitutionality of the Delaware River Basin Commission’s role in regulating the burgeoning natural gas industry in Wayne County came into question Saturday afternoon at a gathering of drilling advocates. “Our nemesis is the Delaware River Basin Commission,” said Bob Suhosky, a member of the Wayne County Oil and Gas Task Force who holds a lease individually in Cherry Ridge Twp. “They’re taking a certain amount of constitutional rights from us.” … Marian Schweighofer, executive director of the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance, concurred with Mr. Suhosky’s views. “In America, we own the property. We own it from here to China,” Ms. Schweighofer said. “If there’s a taking, you’re supposed to be compensated for it.” (Scranton Times-Tribune, 10/3/10)
