Please check out my new short film The Sky Is Pink

Also, please see below the recent Op-Ed written by me and Barbara Arindell for the Albany Times-Union:

Recently, politicians and publications have conditionally endorsed so-called “safe fracking” as a part of the nation’s energy mix. But safe fracking is an impossibility, and the industry’s claims for it are knowingly based on false premises.

Chief among them is the notion that a “leakproof well” is possible. We’ve heard time again that strict regulation is the key to moving forward on fracking, and that new regulations should make sure that industry constructs leakproof wells that do not pollute the water table. There is no such thing as a leakproof gas well. The gas industry knows this; in fact, it has known it for decades.

The part of the gas well that they’re relying on to protect groundwater is simply cement: about a 1-inch-thick layer between the steel casing and the surrounding rock. Cement is permeable before it sets, subject to cracking afterward and can never be made leakproof. A 1-inch layer could never be adequate when groundwater is at risk.

The gas industry’s own documents and case studies show that about 6 percent of cement jobs fail immediately upon installation, and recent experience in the Pennsylvania Marcellus shale has borne this out over and over again.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection has tracked gas leaking from wells across the state. They found 6.2 percent of new gas wells were leaking in 2010, 6.2 percent in 2011 and 7.2 percent so far in 2012.

When the cement fails, it opens a pathway for gas and other toxins involved in the drilling and fracking process to migrate into groundwater and to the surface.

Cementing failure was what caused the blowout of the Macondo Well in the Gulf of Mexico, the ongoing enormous gas leak in the North Sea and contamination of groundwater onshore from Pennsylvania to Wyoming. Over the nearly four years the “Gasland” film team spent researching the issue on the ground, there was nowhere in the hundreds of cities and towns in 20 states we visited that didn’t have a significant groundwater contamination problem resulting from drilling and fracking.

The gas industry has been studying the ongoing problem for decades, and knows it full well. In a report entitled “Well Integrity Failure Presentation,” drilling service company Archer reports that nearly 20 percent of all oil and gas wells are leaking worldwide. A 2003 joint industry publication from Schlumberger, the world’s No. 1 fracking company, and oil and gas giant ConocoPhillips, cites astronomical failure rates of 60 percent over a 30-year span. Industry reports on the problem point to its persistence and the impossibility of completely preventing it.

This is technically impossible. In most cases the industry only acts to try to repair leaky wells after groundwater has been contaminated. Its track record for fixing leaks is plagued by bad planning, technical problems and mishaps. To imagine gas companies voluntarily committing to an eternity of costly maintenance on wells failing at ever-increasing rates is beyond credulity.

Nor have regulators addressed the problem with any realism. The argument that regulation can lead to “safe fracking” is senseless. To frack a well, you have to cement it, and cement inevitably fails. “Safe fracking” is a contradiction in terms.

Leaking oil and gas wells are more than statistics. Failure rates mean thousands across the nation have enough contaminants in their water and land to render them unfit for residential or agricultural use. They’re left with homes they are forced to abandon, and compromised health.

Yet we’ve almost totally failed to assess health impacts of fracking. The one study we know of is a preliminary one done in Colorado by the Colorado School of Public Health. It found a likelihood of moderate to severe health affects from drilling and fracking. Members of the New York state Legislature have joined with environmental groups to demand a full public health impact assessment before fracking is authorized here.

A health assessment is minimum due diligence when our water supply and public health hang in the balance. It’s not only the gas wells that have integrity problems; it is the oil and gas industry itself. We can believe in their self-interested assertions of leakproof wells about as much as we can expect pigs to fly. On both fronts, the only course is to rely on objective evidence.

Josh Fox and Barbara Arindell

Dear Friends:

The Delaware is the river that runs through the heart of the film GASLAND. We’ve kept drilling and fracking out of the river basin for the past three and a half years. Now the Delaware River faces its most grave and urgent threat.

Please see this video that Matt Sanchez and I just created to highlight the critical importance of the upcoming vote on October 21st in Trenton NJ:

This is an urgent call to the fans of GASLAND and to the anti-fracking movement across the nation:

Please act now to Save the Delaware River.

On October 21st, the Delaware River Basin Comission will vote on a plan to allow over 20,000 gas wells in the Delaware River Basin. We need calls to come from all over the nation and we need people from all over the region to come out in protest on October 21st.

The Delaware River Basin Commission is an intergovernmental body that is comprised of five voting members, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, Governor Christie of New Jersey, Governor Corbett of Pennsylvania, Governor Markell of Delaware, and the Obama Administration represented by the Army Corps of Engineers. For the Delaware River to be opened up to drilling, three out of the five have to vote yes on the draft regulations plan. We need them all to reject the proposal and reject gas drilling and fracking.

There has never been a more urgent moment in the Northeast in the battle against fracking. The Delaware is the primary drinking water source for 15.6 Million people and is a national treasure.

Here are 4 ways that you can participate:

1) Call the the Governors from the member states and President Obama TODAY and tell them, “Hello, I am calling you to express my serious concerns about hydrofracking. Please Don’t Drill the Delaware!”

Governor Christie’s office – 609-292-6000
Governor Cuomo’s office – 518-474-8390
Gov Corbett’s office – 717-787-2500
Gov Markell’s Wilmington Office – 302-577-3210
And the white house comment line is 202-456-1111
2) Come to the DRBC meeting in person!

When: October 21, 8 am

Where: Patriots Theater at the War Memorial, 1 Memorial Drive Trenton, N.J. Map HERE.

There are over 20 buses traveling in from all over the region. Click HERE for bus sign up.

3) Delaware Riverkeeper will be hosting a Peaceful Non-Violent Direct Action Training on October 20th. For more information, sign up HERE.

4) If you work with an organization fighting to keep our water safe from hydraulic fracturing, please send this alert to those in your membership, and post it on facebook.

We will continue to send updates in the coming weeks.

For more information go to www.savethedelawareriver.com or visit www.delawareriverkeeper.org

With your help, we can stop the poisoning of our historic rivers and move to renewable and sustainable energy solutions.

Thanks for all you do! Together we can turn the tide.

Josh and the Gasland Team

The environmental contamination and human health risk associated with the extraction of natural gas using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” was little known across the United States for years, until a documentary film brought the issue to the national stage. Josh Fox directed the film Gasland, which chronicles the devastation affecting communities where fracking is taking place and the influence of the natural gas industry over regulation of the techniques and chemicals used in the process. The industry aggressively attacked the film, especially when it was nominated for an Academy Award this year. [includes rush transcript].