This Is Our Country: Living with the Wild West Oil Boom from Dakota Resource Council on Vimeo.

“It was the way America is suppose to be. Now come look at it.  And it’s all for oil”

Those words from rancher Donny Nelson keep echoing through my mind.

Mostly, because one way or another, said in many different accents, I’ve heard them before. I’ve heard them from people interviewed in the Gasland films. I’ve heard them from people we’ve met on the road. I’ve heard them from people hosting community screenings.  I’ve heard them from people posting on our Facebook wall.

I’ve heard them from Brenda Jorgenson herself, who is featured in this film. Josh and I were fortunate enough to meet her and her family when we were in DC several weeks ago.

I liked her instantly. She’s got a warm, sweet, mid-western charm, and is also one hell of a fighter.

But when she talks about what is happening to North Dakota, you know she’s lost something she can’t get back.

The America that generations of her family built and the America she worked hard to leave for her children and grandchildren has been destroyed. And for who?

I come back to this question again and again. And I’m going to keep asking it until we truly answer it as a country.

Is Brenda’s North Dakota, her piece of America, being destroyed so I can turn on my lights and have my America here in Brooklyn?

Is John Fenton’s Wyoming, his piece of America, being destroyed so my sister can drive her car and have her America in Florida?

Is it okay to destroy Steve and Shyla Lipsky’s, Jeremiah Gee’s, Louis Meeks’, Bob and Lisa Parr’s, Mike Markham’s, Calvin Tillman’s, Scott Ely’s and countless other families in Denton and Azele, Texas, Dimock, Pennsylvania, Guy, Arkansas and Butler, Pennsylvania’s America?

The list of families and place we are sacrificing for this “new energy boom” is growing everyday. So who is it for?

For me? For you?

Or is it for the profits of oil and gas companies?

I don’t know about you, but given the choice, I choose this America. An America run on renewable energy, not destroyed land and families. I can’t say the oil and gas companies would do the same.

-Lee Ziesche, Gasland Grassroots Coordinator

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I’m calling on Governor Hickenlooper to immediately enact a statewide ban on all extractive mining operations/Fracking until such time all completed wells in Colorado are just inspected in accordance with flood plain regulations. Current setbacks from water ways have unequivocally proven they do not prevent adverse impacts. This oversight must be immediately addressed on every oil & gas well pad in the state. The horrific environmental and human health catastrophe from the spills & releases from subsurface flow lines, crud oil and  liquid waste tanks must be immediately evaluated and mitigated. There is also a high probability of well casing failures due to the waters seeping down around the annuli and must be an immediate issue of concern.

Pipes were shown broken with what appeared to be bubbling methane releases in numerous areas. The waters are certain to contain BTEX and other dangerous chemicals. Organic farms have been affected by these very waters. Cattle have been pushed up onto small areas with no safe water to drink.

The areas along the South Platte River are destroyed beyond measure and the GOGCC and the industry should be fully held accountable for failing to prevent adverse impacts to the environment and human health.

An immediate statewide moratorium is a sound decision considering the current state rules and regulations are highly inadequate.

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Shane Davis
@fractivist
Regional Campaign Director – GASLAND