'Gasland' Exposes Evil of Natural Gas Drilling

Would you drink this water?

I just saw the powerful Oscar-nominated film "'Gasland" by Director Josh Fox and it is the most important film of the year. What is being done in communities across the country is a crime. This is the United States of America and the oil and gas industry is running roughshod all over this great country in the name of creating jobs and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

The consequences of this unregulated hydraulic fracturing of oil shales is nothing short of catastrophic for the victims who happen to live near one of the thousands of facilities popping up seemingly everywhere. "Gasland" documents cases of contaminated drinking water in communities from Kansas to Colorado and the results are incredibly disturbing.

These toxic chemicals are seeping into the water supply without sufficient regulation as a passive Environmental Protection Agency is unwilling to effectively monitor companies like Halliburton that were able to dismiss themselves from the Clean Water Act and other environmental and health protection laws thanks to Dick Cheney and his oil and gas industry friends in Congress, who exempted fracking from regulation in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The water in Iraq and Afghanistan is cleaner than some of the water tested in "Gasland." If this is the consequence of energy independence than no thanks. What I wished the film did at the end was make the case for other forms of renewable energy that don't endanger the rivers, humans and wildlife like drilling for natural gas does. Imagine all the needless suffering that could be averted if we just invested more in solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower and biofuels.

We are making the same mistakes we made when we went crazy drilling for oil and mining for coal. I hope "Gasland" wins an Oscar so more people see how greedy and sinister the oil and gas industry is.