A diarist for the liberal Daily Kos blog who self-identifies as an "environmental consultant" blasted a new film by environmental activist Josh Fox on Sunday.
The writer, who goes by the handle LakeSuperior, insisted that Gasland Part II, a sequel to Fox’s Oscar-nominated 2010 documentary Gasland, "is not a reliable source of information for making decisions about the oil and gas industry."
"My colleagues in the environmental movement are fond of showing the Gasland video products to citizens and claiming to use the movies as an ‘educational’ tool," LakeSuperior wrote.
The problem with Gasland is that it is entertainment that actually is ‘science denial’ and thus not fitting as an educational documentary or journalism. […]
Gasland is out to deny that hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells can ever be carried out safely and to promote that position as widely as possible to the general public. As Josh Fox insisted in his recent appearance on the Daily Show, the oil and gas industry uses "fatally flawed engineering" in the United States' oil and natural gas wells and that nothing about hydraulic fracturing can be fixed to make it acceptable in the view of Gasland. By doing so Josh Fox/Gasland denies the validity of the sciences of petroleum and natural gas process engineering, geology, geological engineering and hydrology (including risk assessment and safety analysis carried out using these scientific disciplines) and denies the engineering and scientific determinations of organizations like the U.S. Department of Energy […]
This diary attempts to explain why those Gasland claims are erroneous for two specific points articulated by Fox and widely believed as true in 'anti-fracking camp' and in the environmental movement nationally—that the oil and gas industry [and specifically including hydraulic fracturing] is exempt from the Federal Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.
The post goes on to debunk some of Fox’s central arguments in the film regarding regulation of the oil and gas industry. Gasland Part II premiered on HBO on Monday night.
Fox also included footage in his new film of a Texas resident’s garden hose spewing flames, supposedly as a result of methane leaks from hydraulic fracturing operations in the area.
According to a Texas judge, the scene was a hoax designed to play up fears about the practice.