Video Testimony
The following public testimony was given on May 16, 2013 to the Boulder County Colorado Commissioners to request a new multi-year moratorium be enacted immediately before the current moratorium on oil and gas drilling in Boulder County ends on June 10, 2013.
Dan Leftwich, Environmental Attorney with Mind Drive Legal Services explains the legal defensibility of a moratorium and local government’s authority to use a moratorium to protect the public safety (5-min. video).
Micah Parkin of 350.org of Boulder County discusses the health risks of fracking and methane leaks contributing to Climate Change (3 min. video).
Neshama Abraham of the Sierra Club and Frack Free Boulder provides legal and medical evidence for creating a new moratorium to first conduct health assessment studies to protect the public safety of Boulder County residents an the environment (5-min video).
Suzanne Spiegel, yoga instructor with Core Power and Radiance Yoga, describes the serious health damage from fracking to a family in Rifle, CO (3-min. video).
Karen Conduff, with Lighthouse Solar, asks that we not spend one more dime or brain power on fossil fuels, especially as last week we hit 400 parts per million (ppm) in CO2 in the atmosphere.
Films
“Gasland” - In the documentary Gasland by filmmaker Josh Fox, people who live near fracked wells in Weld County, Colorado describe how their well water turned brown and could be lit on fire from the methane leakage and toxic chemicals that seeped into and poisoned the water table. After wells were fracked near their home, these Coloradoans developed cancer, brain tumors, severe asthma, disorientation, tremors, migraines, continuous nose bleeds, and became so debilitated that just getting through the day became a struggle.
“The Promised Land” – A land leasing salesman played by Matt Damon works for a multi-billion dollar energy company and arrives in a small town where his corporation wants to tap into the available hydro-carbon resources under people’s land. Over the course of this film, Matt’s character realizes that what he thought was the “right” thing to do – paying people to frack on their farms and property – is far more complicated than he ever knew. This film played in Boulder for two weeks then mysteriously was no longer in theaters. Hmmm.
“Fracking In America“ takes a look at the continuing instances of water contamination and environmental damage occurring throughout the United States as a result of hydraulic fracturing–an industrial process used to fracture rock in the search to exploit natural gas deposits. As the frantic effort to extract gas accelerates, the impact of fracking expands with increasing pressures on fresh water supplies and continuing threats to health and the wider ecosystem.
“Fracking Hell — The Untold Story“ looks at the risks of natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale throughout the United States. From toxic chemicals in drinking water to interstate dumping of radioactive waste that cataclysmically contaminates water supplies, to fracking plans in major population centres including New York City — are the health consequences worth the supposed economic gains?
“The Sky is Pink” As an emergency short film following up Gasland, film maker Josh Fox returns to the urgent crisis of drilling and fracking throughout the United States and the world. Induced hydraulic fracturing or ‘hydrofracking’, commonly just known as ‘fracking’, is a technique used to release petroleum, natural gas, shale gas, tight gas, coal seam gas, and other substances for extraction. The Sky Is Pink returns to the issues of water contamination and the cataclysmic environmental impacts caused by fracking to show again first hand evidence of widespread ecological damage and the threat of more to come unless we stop it.
“Split Estate“ – Exempt from environmental protection laws, the oil and gas industry has left idyllic landscapes and rural communities throughout the United States pockmarked with abandoned homes, polluted waterways and aquifers, as well as plenty of sick people. Split Estate zeroes in on Garfield County in Colorado, and the San Juan Basin where more demonstrations of water that can be set on fire are found, but industry isn’t just stopping there — fracking is spreading across the United States, with plans to even drill in the New York City watershed, as well as elsewhere around the globe. As the appetite for fossil fuels increases, Split Estate debunks claims by an industry that assures the public that it is a good neighbour, driving home the need to stop fracking, both here and abroad.
