Josh Fox — the director of Gasland — grew up in Milanville, Pennsylvania. One day not too long ago he received a letter in the mail telling him that natural gas drilling was coming to his doorstep: A Halliburton-designed technology could unlock the rich reserve of natural gas underneath the ground in the Catskills/Poconos region. See the Video
Why were they coming now? Well, for starters, in 2005, the Bush administration exempted the natural gas industry from the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Right-to-Know Act, to name a few — and production was ramping up! The local provider was offering Fox something like $5,000 an acre to drill on his property. (Fox owned 20 acres).
Why would someone offer him $100,000 in cash? Fox started investigating. And what he found shocked him. In towns out west, where this technique called hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) was used, people were getting sick. Mysterious ailments, cancer, that sort of thing. Fox (and many others) believed the chemicals in fracking (chemicals Haliburton declined to identify, calling them "proprietary") were seeping into the water table, threatening to permanently taint the supply. Fox set off on a cross-country research tour.
Comment by: PT (David Alexander) (Jun-25-2010) Web site
There is not enough information out in the public about these facts related to extraction of natural gas. Even if people hear rumors that they might get sick, they don't believe it easily, and they need or want money to secure their futures.
Comment by: City Worker (Jun-25-2010)
I believe that people see natural gas as a bonanza underneath the ground in the U.S. They see it as a cleaner than oil energy source which we do not have to go outside of the country to obtain. They also see the powering of cars by natural gas as cheaper than running electric cars. I think they're not factoring the cost of polluting our water supply, or else they're keeping mum about it..
Comment by: City Worker (Jun-25-2010)
Oh no! The future of the drinking water throughout the United States is at risk! If the natural gas industry continues to remain unregulated by the Federal Government, the natural gas industry will continue to lure people throughout the country with money and deception into letting them drill under their lands and make their water supplies toxic mixes.
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Fossil Fuel
PT (David Alexander)
