GasLand - Must See TV

Like all Americans, I care about this country. I believe in freedom for the individual such as online poker which I have discussed in previous entries. But almost everything pales in comparison to the health of our environment. If something is hurting our air or water, we need to stop it. But I was also trained as a scientist and real proof must be presented for all cases.

Josh Fox received a letter from a gas company offering him $100,000 to let them use his land in PA to drill for natural gas. He decided to look into the matter in detail and produced an HBO documentary - GasLand. The movie just came out on June 22. Its a chilling story. I urge everyone to see it. If you get HBO, its available on demand.

To put it tactfully, Josh is not happy with the gas and oil industry. He claims that the "fracking" process is poisoning wells all over the country. The industry says he is overstating the case. Since the story is so scary, I decided to do some homework on my own. Here is my take.

Josh did us a great service in bringing this story to light. It something that needs to be discussed openly. We also need much more data. Too many questions are not addressed. Such as, how many homeowners have filed complaints about their wells? Where are they located? What studies have been done to date? Who authored them and what do they show? If there haven't been any recent studies, then we need to get some good scientist on it right away. I'm also dissappointed with Josh's map of the waterways. It is drawn so far off scale and hurts his credibility. It looks like New York State is 75% water, for example. He also fails to show proper balance relative to the stories he tells. Some of these incidents were supposedly debunked. Give us everything, Josh, not just the pieces that help your argument.

Now on the industry side. The biggest problem I have with their counter argument is that they never fully explain why they are so fearful of having the EPA oversee their activities. Isn't that why we have an EPA? They claim the states are doing a good job of oversight. They also cling to a 2004 EPA report that purports to prove that the process is safe. First of all, I have trouble believing the Bush EPA was an impartial entity. The former CEO of Haliburton was the VP for crying out loud. Secondly the EPA did not do any independent research on the issue. It simply performed a mega-study and based its findings on other studies several of which were performed by the industry (which to me have no value due to sever conflict of interest).

I must say however, being the experienced poker player, I spied two tells on the industry website. The first one was that they claim that methane mixing with water does not pose a health risk because methane is a gas and it doesn't get in to the water. C'mon fellas. Who in their right mind would tolerate methane gas coming out of the tap when you turned on the water. The other tell was that they said they would take full responsibility for any damage to water wells that they caused. But they wouldn't take responsibility for a poisoned well if the fracture already existed and they just kind of inched it along. You kiddin' me.

Bottom line. To President Obama: Clearly this oversight must fall under the EPA. The industry defended the status quo by saying it would cost jobs. Not good enough. If this is as harmful as Mr. Fox makes it out to be, it needs to be addressed. Secondly, a panel of top scientists including a few from industry and from the environmental community (as long as they have stellar credentials) needs to be empaneled on a Presidential Commission. Finally, a moratorium on new drilling should be put in place until all this can be sorted out. I don't think anyone would disagree with the statement: Drilling for natural gas is fine as long as we can be absolutely sure that it is environmentally benign.

Next time I'll get back to poker.