We’ve seen this myth unravel again and again. Whether it’s Chesapeake Energy stiffing folks on royalties or local Pennsylvanians telling us there were a few jobs for them at first in the oil and gas fields being drilled in their own backyards but they quickly got phased out by guys from Texas, it’s clear fracking is not the local economic savior the industry makes it out to be.

The residents of Denton, Texas are seeing what fracked communities from Pennsylvania to Colorado are seeing. Adam Briggle says it all in our video of the week, “We get the off the book costs, the pollution, the spills, the noise, ozone and doctors bills, the truck traffic, lost property values and blowouts while the lion’s share of the wealth pours out of town.”

And they’re fed up. They’ve tried to regulate fracking to keep wells away from their homes and schools, but they’ve discovered what others across the country have. The only way to keep our communities safe is to ban fracking.

Frack Free Denton has gathered more than the required signatures to put their fracking ban initiative on the November ballot. A ban in Texas, an oil and gas state, would be an incredible victory for the entire anti-fracking movement.

Please watch and share this great short by Adam Briggle of the Denton Drilling Awareness Group that simply, but effectively lays out the facts and destroys the myth that fracking is helping the local community of Denton.

Lee Ziesche, Gasland Grassroots Coordinator

It was a great segment with a terrific section on how we need a national conversation about replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy.  Josh points out that with 6,000 spills in 2012 alone, amounting to more oil, gas, wastewater and fracking fluids spreading throughout the continental US than the total volume of oil spilled in the Exxon Valdez, we are in a permanent state of “spill” that can’t really be called accidental anymore.

But there’s one moment that’s been eating away at me so much this whole week that I can’t handle not talking about it for another minute.

Around 7:23, host Melissa Harris-Perry, brings up the “human cost” of creating the Panama Canal, creating a parallel between it and coal mining in West Virginia. As a self-proclaimed devil’s advocate, she asks Marcus Mabry do people have to die for corporate progress?

So I asked myself, do I want to use coal, natural gas or oil if I know their extraction is poisoning someone like John Fenton, the Ely family or any of the other families featured in Gasland and Gasland Part II?

As a country, have we to answer those questions.  Every time we turn on a light, turn on our cars or turn on our stoves, are we okay with someone else’s family being poisoned so we can power our lives?

I don’t think anyone’s ever really asked us those questions. There’s a huge disconnect between the energy that powers our lives and where it comes from. I think if they did ask, the answer would be no. As an American society we’re not okay with having one portion of our population sacrificed to meet the rest of the country’s energy needs, especially since there are safer, renewable alternatives.

But Melissa Harris-Perry didn’t ask if it is okay that one part of our country is expendable for the sake of the rest of us, she asked do people have to die for corporate progress?

And I think without really meaning to, she got to the root of the problem.

Corporate progress.

Because there are people answering Melissa’s question, they’re just not you and me.

The fossil fuel industry is saying yes it’s okay for people to die for our progress, a progress that has nothing to do with the powering of our country, and everything to do with them meeting their bottom lines, making billions of dollars.

They’re saying yes.  Yes, it’s okay to frack to get gas even though it can contaminate the water and air.

Yes it’s okay to move to other forms of extreme energy extraction even though we know we have to keep those fossil fuels in the ground to avoid catastrophic climate change. 

And they’re not saying yes because it’s a necessary evil. They’re saying yes because they’re making money.

Because if they truly cared about “progress” the fossil fuel industry wouldn’t be moving America back from the progress we’ve made.  We are a better America today than when the Panama Canal was built.

We’ve passed labor and human rights laws that say it’s not okay for hundreds of people to die the way the workers of the Panama Canal did.  Many of those labor laws were born in the coal mines of West Virginia.

We’ve passed a lot of important environmental laws since then too.

And in passing all those labor, human rights and environmental laws, we’ve already answered the question do we have to sacrifice peoples’ lives to progress as a society.

It’s not just a moral question either. Science is on our side. We know that there is another way when it comes to how we power our society.  And that means there is absolutely no reason for certain communities to be made expendable for the sake of corporate profits.

Right now there are still people facing illness, contamination and ruin so multinational corporations can make billion of dollars.  So the questions should really be, why are we letting that happen?

By Lee Ziesche, Gasland Grassroots Coordinator 

Last little note: As to what that other way is, stay tuned. You’ll be hearing from us very soon with more. 

After over 45 Gasland Part II screenings across the globe, we’ve seen a lot of awesome activist t-shirts. 

I love them because they always reflect the distinct characteristic of the place we’re at and the people organizing there. One of my favorites is a t-shirt organizers from Denton, Texas made.

Organizers from Denton, Texas

It has a football player dodging through drilling rigs and says ‘Don’t Frack the Home Team’ on the back. But that’s exactly what is happening in Denton, where a drilling rig is right near the Apogee Stadium, where the University of North Texas plays.

And it’s not just the football field. In 2010, a drilling company drilled three wells right next to homes, a hospital, and a public park with a playground, forcing people to come together to form the Denton Drilling Awareness Group which has been fighting for more robust ordinances to protect health, safety, public welfare, and community integrity ever since.

DAG organizers at the Gasland Part II screening in Fort Worth, Texas

We’ve seen this all over the country. Rigs, condensate tanks and compressor stations right in people’s backyards, putting dangerous toxins just a stone’s throw or soft breeze away from families.

Below is a post from Adam Briggle, of the DAG,  reposted from his blog Drilling Denton that will show you just how close to home drilling in Denton is.

Frack to the Future: Why Are Drilling Rigs so Close to Homes in Denton?

Denton’s new drilling ordinance established a 1,200 foot setback between gas wells and protected uses like homes. But the future of fracking in Denton is going to be a story about gas wells much, much closer to homes than that. 

We first got a glimpse of our future in April, just a few months after the ordinance was passed, when a development was approved that would put homes less than 250 feet from gas wells.

Now the picture is becoming even clearer. EagleRidge is drilling two wells simultaneously off of Vintage and S. Bonnie Brae. There are some homes just 100 feet from the pad sites. Many more homes are just 500 feet, or less, away. The diesel engines on site are pumping out black smoke.

I took this picture down there as the school bus was dropping off children. You can see one of the wells (south side)  – there was another one, even closer, behind me as I took the picture. The future of fracking in Denton is going to look like this: polluting industries plopped right next to houses. And all the activity we are seeing now is just the appetizer for the rush that is going to happen when we really start exporting natural gas and prices spike. 

Here is the Railroad Commission GIS image for the wells. 

And just tonight, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved another project that will bring homes 100 feet from a gas well.

You might wonder how this could be when the new ordinance seems to make this illegal. The answer is that the 1,200 foot setback in the ordinance does not apply to situations where new homes are built around existing gas well pad sites. I don’t quite know why this is. It has something to do with vested rights…but it also just seems to be a terrible oversight in the ordinance. DAG recommended fixing this problem. But that idea didn’t get any play.

Most of the pad sites that will ever be in Denton are already platted and at least partly developed. And most of them are south and west of town where lots of our population growth is likely to occur. So, we are going to see more and more situations where homes are in very close proximity to pad sites where new wells will be added and old wells will be reworked and refracked for years to come. And none of this will be covered by our so-called current ordinance. 

We have learned that fracking and neighborhoods do not mix. But we are going to keep on mixing them. 

Some will say that this is acceptable, because those homebuyers are making an informed decision to move next to a gas well. But they are not. They don’t know it is coming. I have heard from several folks in the neighborhood where I took this picture, and they tell me that this came as a surprise. Some say they wouldn’t have bought homes there if they knew this was going to happen.

Oh, and readers of this blog won’t be shocked to learn that the people in this neighborhood do not own any of the mineral rights and, thus, are not making a dime from the drilling. Records from the Denton Central Appraisal District show that the mineral ownership of these wells is split between five owners in Dallas, Austin, Abilene, and Lewisville.

We’ll be posting a couple times a week here, sharing posts from folks we met on the road, updates from the subjects of Gasland and Gasland Part II and a lot of pictures and stories of things we experienced on the road. 

But we also want to hear from you. Send me an email at screenings@gaslandthemovie.com if you want to us to share your story. 

On this day we have to remember those who died  and those who lost everything.

But more than just remembrance, we have to realize what it means.
We have to end our dependency on fossil fuels.
Unless we shift to renewables, events like Sandy will become more and more common
and our civilization will rush into one state of emergency after another.

Please take a look at my short film, made a few weeks after Sandy hit last year
and take a moment to contemplate.  The film features Bill McKibben, Occupy Sandy volunteers and
many brave and inspiring victims of the storm.

OCCUPY SANDY from JFOX on Vimeo.

But don’t just click and move on.  Take action now.

Sign up for our alerts to fight fracking.

Of course, we’re known for our feature films like GASLAND I and II but our short projects, which are always independent and not funded by a major studio, are sometimes just as important.  We will continue to make new work and share it with you here on our blog. We will also feature blogposts from folks around the world that are fighting against fracking that we think will inspire you.

Our blog and short works need funding. Please donate so that we can continue to make short films like Occupy Sandy in the future.

We are striving to continue to bring you this reporting

Thanks,
Josh

From day one, it’s been people like you at the heart of this movement. You’ve become the inspiration that keeps us going and the reason GASLAND Part II exists.

But we’re not done yet. Before we begin our tour this summer, and bring GASLAND Part II to communities across the country, we need your help with two things.

1. Can you reach out to five friends and ask them to join us?

2. Fill out this form and let us know who you are. This movement has grown exponentially since we started, and we need to know which organizations and communities are with us.

Gasland inspired the world to take a closer look at the dangers of fracking, but it’s been supporters like you who have kept it at the forefront of the national debate.

In GASLAND Part II, we have undertaken an unflinching, fearless investigation of the toxic influences polluting our democracy. GASLAND Part II delves even deeper into the corrupt and poisonous world of hydraulic fracturing, exposing the forces desperately working to keep us addicted to the shrinking resources of the fossil fuel industries.

Ultimately, GASLAND Part II calls us to action, demanding that We The People do “The most we can do”, and that we command our elected officials to pursue a future we can all live in.

You can answer that call right now.

Ask five friends to join us today. We’ll keep them updated on screenings and ways to get involved.

And if you’ve been involved all along, fill out this form so we know where we stand and how best to support the incredible movement you’ve built.

Love,
Josh and The GASLAND Team

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