'Gasland': The Battle Over Energy Extraction Moves Inland From the Gulf

Thank you to the man who took the time to document the dangers of seeking natural gas. I really hope we can all learn from what has happened to the beautiful Gulf of Mexico and not allow that to happen to New York or any other part of our country.

It's interesting to see people who have zero knowledge on the topic at hand whatsoever and pretty much zero knowledge on oil and gas in general, let alone the extensive and ridiculous regulatory bodies that oversee, overreach, and over-impose them.

It puts things in perspectives for sure... to see people making claims that have zero application to reality - talking about operations and acting like they know whats going on - when they can't even describe the basic concept at hand.

Makes it easy to see why so many politicians/governments get away with murder and theft from day to day - because the people take anything they hear at face value instead of doing the required background research to make sure they aren't being lied to.

Sad.

The issue here is not Bush or Obama. The issue is an American public that is willing to sacrifice the quality of life experience by others to preserve their own resources. It is the concept of “cheep” or “free” energy. That is the base issue here. The American seems willing to accept ANY adverse impact to someone else so long their individual perceived quality of life is maintained. The American public is placated by a political body which says it has passed “regulations” to “protect the public health, safety and, welfare only to not enforce those same regulations allowing the extensive destruction and damage to occur.
Industry experts will certainly deny any public harm or adverse environmental or social impacts. The experts will portray any objection as extreme or an isolated occurrence. They will justify their operations with simplistic answers saying “these impacts are minor, temporary and occurring in remote locations” and they have been reviewed by the appropriate governmental agency and have been issued their “permits”. These same type of experts guaranteed that a massive Oil spill in the Gulf could never occur. These same regulatory agencies, both federal and state, told us that these oil and gas wells are adequately regulated, monitored, inspected and pose no risk to the public health safety and welfare. Quite simply both the regulated industry and the regulatory agencies have clearly and continually demonstrated they will lie to the American Public with our own Congress and elected representatives supporting them.
We as a society seem to have accepted a belief that if “I cannot see it from my front porch” it is not a problem. We seem to believe that we are somehow entitled to destroy someone else to justify our own personal requirements for energy. When politicians passed around the Cheep& Free, Safe Energy Kool-Aid, we drank a belly full.

This show was riveting; not because it was a polished professional piece, but in spite of it.
Kudos to this young man for the guts and stamina to give us a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg.
Here's the part where we should all become outraged and inspired to act and save our country (for a change).
I love luxuries as much as the next guy but I could learn to cut back and make better choices.
Lets separate the politicians from the corporations so they can do the same.

How & Who do I contact?

My comments are not meant to bring about a debate on something we all know too little about.
This is a serious problem that needs to be addressed on many levels. I advocate these very serious "allegations" be addressed with the same urgency the government and politicians would demand for there own families. Every story has 2 sides lets hear both in layperson terms. In the mean time anyone with serious doubts may want to change their vacation plans this summer and maybe stop by some of those folks homes for "lemonade" or maybe drop a "fishin" line in. You can decide for yourself.

The horrendous use of misleading articles in an effort to convert the citizenry to a particular point of view is manipulative and shows a general disregard of the people to make informed and intelligent decisions.

The state Department of Environmental Protection shut down the well and fined the company that was contaminating the drinking water, causing the water to start on fire in the faucet. The company was fined for its shoddy well construction as well as failing to alleviate the problem when previously identified.

Other government agencies do regulate fracking even if the EPA doesn't, not only other federal agencies but other state agencies as well.

The inference from the article that fracking avoids any regulation is either poorly written or the intention of the author.

The article is untrustworthy on this subject, which is a shame, because people do need information. But when articles go out of their way to twist the facts to meet the view of the author rather then provide facts that people can trust, it ruins the credibility of the whole article and the premise of the article.


I will also point out that several studies have contradicted the position taken by several groups regarding fracking.

Questions that come to mind, are the chemicals used in fracking in general use for other purposes?

How long has fracking been in use, domestically and world wide?

There's only one solution. We must stop all use of energy and go back to being cavemen ... except for our politicians. They will be exempt and the only ones who have cars. Please turn in your keys immediately! No more energy means no more planes, trains and autos. You can't have it both ways people!

WAKE UP AMERICA ! if much more happens I am going to believe the 2012 Mayan calander

2005 energy bill prohibits the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating fracking -- a provision advocated by Vice President Dick Cheney. Some named the amendment after Halliburton, the huge energy company Cheney worked for before becoming vice president
I think we can understand how we got into the oil mess...The rules were relaxed. Inspectors paid off. With all the mess Obama inherited, these troubles were not forseen. Now they want to poison our lands. Very troubling.

My area of Southeast Michigan has abundant ground water, and much natural gas. It is not uncommon for domestic water wells to entrain some methane. While not desirable, the phenomenon is not due to fracturing by evil corporations: it was evident generations ago.
People need to get a better grip on what man does vs what is the fact pattern independent of the puny activities of man.

Windmills kill birds. Solar panels fry birds