Truthland: Natural Gas Drilling

Gasland is a documentary about a man who is offered money to sell his land for natural gas drilling companies and finds out that people are having problems where natural gas drilling companies are in place. In his journey, he finds out that people are having problems with their water supply, sometimes even far as to be enough to burn. After taking samples from the water, he finds out that it contains toxic chemicals. A proof came out when several fishes, birds and rabbits were found dead around the polluted water.

After the pollution, the companies were confronted by the environmental agencies and they listed chemicals that are used in the drilling process but still refused to list them under the clean water act. The companies said that they

will replace any water that is polluted and admitted that Natural Gas drilling is a resource that is used as a passage from oil and coal to an ultimate resource that is clean and doesn’t harm the environment.

The industries were ignorant and selfish. People who only care about money and use their power to gain more money and power. The way they reacted to the water supply issue was disgraceful. They said they will replace the water that is polluted and sometimes even denying that there is a water pollution to begin with. They refused to be interviewed and give answers to why they are making the live of people miserable. The people working in the industry have reached to the point where they only care about money and power that they don’t care about other people and suffering.

Fracking was explicitly made exempt from the Safe Water Drinking Act by a piece of energy legislation passed by Congress called the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This exemption allows drilling and fracking companies to inject unknown and/or toxic materials directly into, below, or adjacent to underground sources of drinking water without reporting the chemicals or the quantities of these chemicals to the government or to the public. This exemption was made by George Bush and his vice president, Dick Cheney.

To make matters worse, they released a movie called truthland that is full of lies and about Shelly , a teacher, dairy farmer and mom from northeastern PA.

She goes out to find the actual facts about fracking and the impact on the environment. As the movie goes on, the experts say that the chemicals used in the fracking process don’t go up to the surface, that natural gas poses no threat to the environment-it actually prevents damages caused from strip mining and other methods to get coal- and that Josh Fox misrepresented the oil drilling process, including the fact that it was impossible to frack into an underground water zone. The woman’s voice while she said “experts” and phrases like “I might as go to the best” and “I know which believe it rather than believing some New York reporter who makes movies for a living.” Her voice and the so called “Experts” responses reeks of funding from gas companies. How shameful claiming that she is just a school teacher looking for answers for her kids and assuring herself of the water she is using is safe. Several people claimed that they had no problems with the gas companies drilling and some say that their water was contaminated with methane when there is no drilling involved. To make it more believable, one person lighted his sink when there was no drilling around and a person blew the sturdy construction off from the whole and it came out intact. In the movie, Lisa Jackson, the head of the EPA says that fracking has not caused any problems that people say it did and it is clean but it requires smart regulation and responsible companies. To make matters worse, the movie showed reports of improper

tests.

The director of the movie FrackNation, a movie directed by Phelim McAleer in response to GasLand, tends to be more believable since it was started on kickstarter and not funded by gas companies. On the website, fracknation.com, It’s stated that “FrackNation was funded by 3,305 backers on Kickstarter who generously donated $212,265 to have us investigate the truth about fracking. All funds from oil and gas companies or their executives were explicitly rejected. FrackNation is a film by the people, for the people.” At the end of the movie, TruthLand, there is a scene where Phelim McAleer asks Josh Fox that her knew that water was burning well before fracking started but didn’t include them in his show, Josh Fox simply said “Yes, but that is not relevant.”The whole movie leans to one side much like GasLand but the woman in the movie doesn’t attack any people involved in the movie but only the director, Josh Fox, saying he knew burning water has nothing to do with water all along.