Two good guests tonight (from my writing-about-them POV, dunno how they handle interviews). Alas, it's the longest day of the year, and I'm enjoying all that daylight. So, the diary's getting sort-of a half-assed effort. Chances are that'll be the case all summer long. I guess I'll stop apologizing for spending the evening on my patio instead on on the computer. (There's something wonderfully 'vacation' about eating dinner in the open air.)
So. Jon's got Josh Fox, director of the prizewinning documentary Gasland -- which aired on HBO at 9pm tonight. Mountain/Western time readers, quick: flip over! Everyone else, I found this schedule:
HBO Thursday, June 24 1:00 PM
HBO Friday, June 25 12:30 AM
HBO Saturday, June 26 12:00 PM
HBO Wednesday, June 30 9:45 AM
Of course, those of us without HBO will have to figure something else out.
Here's a bit of Josh's bio from his film/theater company site:
Josh Fox is the founder and Artistic Director of International WOW Company a film and theater company that works closely with actors and non actors from diverse cultural backgrounds, including members of the US Military, activist communities in sustainable energy and design and actors, dancers, designers and filmmakers from around the world to create new work that addresses current national and global social and political crises. Josh's work is known for its mix of gripping narrative, heightened imagery and its commitment to socially conscious themes and subjects.
Founded in 1996, International WOW has premiered new work in 8 countries with a rotating network over 100 actors, dancers, musicians, technical, and visual artists spanning 30 countries on 5 continents. With International WOW Company Josh has received a Drama Desk Nomination, an Otto Award, five grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and five prestigious MAP Fund Grants, an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship among many other awards and honors.
Most recently, Josh wrote and directed GASLAND his first documentary feature, which will premiere at SUNDANCE film festival in the US documentary competition. The film is about the largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. What is uncovered is truly shocking--water that can be lit on fire right out of the sink, chronically ill residents of drilling areas from disparate locations in the US all with the same mysterious symptoms, huge pools of toxic waste that kill cattle and vegetation well blowouts and huge gas explosions consistently covered up by state and federal regulatory agencies.
Fracking, is what it's about. Also the Cheney-Halliburton loophole:
When the Sundance award-winning film, Gasland, begins nationwide broadcast on HBO this Monday, the curtain will rise on Act II of the health tragedy wrought by the insurgent fossil fuel race to profit. This exquisitely crafted documentary feels like America's Nuremberg, as ordinary heartland citizens rise up to indict gas giants, who, they claim, have been on the loose since 2005, when former Vice-President Dick Cheney crafted the so-called Halliburton Loophole.
The Halliburton Loophole expressly exempts oil and gas companies, from customary safety measures, health safeguards, regulatory oversights, penalties and liabilities that most Americans assume are in place to protect citizens, health and resources. As the film depicts, since 2005, the companies have ratcheted into high gear around the country, using a fuel collection practice, called "fracking" linked to drinking water contamination and health harm. Now they have their sights set on New York, with Albany lawmakers currently meeting behind closed doors to either grant or withhold permission to drill in New York, until after the EPA completes safety studies. In the next few days, the Albany decision could effect the health and water supplies of people in New York City, Philadelphia, New York State, New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania where two weeks ago an exploding gas well spewed forth 35,000 gallons of toxins for 16 hours. Moreover, film-maker Josh Fox (who will appear on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on June 21st) says that if New York just says: no, it could start a nation-wide trend to halt unsafe fuel prospecting...
My emphasis. And I include that NY detail because that article's dated today, and
Just as in the Gulf crisis, some contend that proofs of safety should be required prior from industries using unsafe practices. Many assume that government regulatory policies and inspectors are in place to enforce rules that protect public resources and health. But they aren't. For example, New York, where drillers poise to install over 500 gas wells, has 16 inspectors and an environmental oversight agency, which government officials admit is riddled with conflicts of interest.
The Halliburton Loophole exempts oil and gas companies from the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Drinking Water Act, and the Superfund Act.In Albany, the Abbabbo-Engelbright bill number S7592, being voted on this week, imposes a moratorium on gas drilling until after a slated EPA study is done. Environmental groups urge calls to Albany now to ask Senator Malcolm Smith, the Senator President, is at 518-455-2701 or 212-298-5585 and Senate Majority Conference Leader John. L. Sampson is at 518-455-2788 and 718-649-7653 to support a one and/or a two year moratorium.
I found an assortment of other activist blog posts about the issue -- please come back to this tomorrow & make some phone calls (or, hey, diary it! Doesn't seem to have been done yet).
Oh, and I was amused at the Dickens.url choice of quotes. They can't be completely random:
Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.
From A Tale of Two Cities
Back to Gasland -- the reviews I found tell me that it is/isn't along the lines of the Michael Moore school of filmmaking, it is/isn't responsible journalism, etc. My favorite:
It’s one-sided, flawed and personal in the Michael Moore mode, and it jibes completely with the stories told by people from out west who offered cautionary tales at an information session at the same theater two years earlier,
Couldn't possibly be that that "one side" is just plain truth. Nah.
Very glad to see this guy on TDS.
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