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truth + creativity
California Farmers Alarmed as Energy Companies Outbid Ag Water Districts for Resource By Dan Aiello, originally published by California Progress Report There’s a new water interest bidding for California’s limited water supplies, and the managers of California’s historic [...]
With high-profile activists like Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon taking a stand against fracking, the controversial drilling practice has been pulled from the periphery and placed in the public's main line-of-sight at a scale sparking movement from Hollywood. Promised Land, a film starring Matt Damon as a salesman for a natural gas company, hits theaters tonight, lending cinematic drama to the issue of fracking. While the large-scale exposure is valuable, Melissa Troutman, co-creator of another film on fracking, is careful to iterate an important fact, "Promised Land is a story, but this [Triple Divide] is a true story." Triple Divide, a documentary by Joshua Pribanic and Melissa Troutman of Public Herald, carefully investigates the effects of fracking in the Marcellus Shale Region of Pennsylvania from the ground up, focusing its lens on the true accounts of neighbors who have lost their water well to contamination from drilling, and farmers, like the ones in Promised Land, who have lost their land to pollution from a nearby well pad. In their first live interview about the film, journalists Joshua and Melissa discussed Triple Divide and the impact of fracking with Stefanie Spear, Founder and Editor of EcoWatch, a news service designed to promote and build a community of grassroots environmental activism. You can watch the full interview above or at EcoWatch.
In the early spring of 2006, a nice man was in the area, promoting a chance to dream of better times for Bradford County and its farmers. There was promise of jobs for everyone and the farmer would generate money from signing a lease, and if a gas well was drilled on the farmer’s property he would become rich. Two years passed with little activity. By now, the older leases were about to expire, gas companies were beginning to drill, and excitement was in the air. Here, the majority of farmers signed early, receiving $5- $85/per acre. There was this belief that the person with the gas well would become the next “shaleionaires.” We later found out small acre properties started signing leases at $2,500/ per acre. By the spring of 2009, there was uneasiness among some of the farmers who had a gas well drilled on their property. The local newspaper was reporting contamination found in water wells, death occurring on a gas pad and the farmer was facing the fact that he could lose his farm due to a lawsuit based on the gas companies operation. For myself, I was thinking that our lucky neighbor was going to become the next Millionaire, because they had the gas well drilled on them. Soon my mind changed. Those farmers were facing penalties lodged against them, due to their land becoming industrial use instead of agricultural use.
Black lung surges back in coal country by Chris Hamby for iWatch News PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — Ray Marcum bears the marks of a bygone era of coal mining. At 83, his voice is raspy, his eastern Kentucky accent [...]
by CIR Danger Zone: Aging nuclear reactors Despite the Fukushima catastrophe in Japan last March, nuclear power is experiencing a rebirth in the United States. Billions of dollars in federal funding has been allocated to develop nuclear capacity; [...]
The Mix: ARPA-E Director Arun Majumdar by energyNOW! The U.S. pioneered many of the clean energy technologies used today around the world. But five years ago, when an elite group of scientists warned America was falling behind foreign [...]
VIDEO: Nuclear Waste and the Race for Resources by energyNOW! [ASSURAS] Thousands of tons of waste from nuclear power plants. Who wants that in their back yard? Could salt caverns deep below the surface be the safest solution? [...]
Nebraska lawmakers could stall massive pipeline project by Corbin Hiar for iwatch news The Canadian company that wants to build an oil pipeline through six states has increased its lobbying spending in both Lincoln, Neb., and Washington, D.C., as [...]
To aggregate, or not to aggregate – that is the question… When issuing permits to release pollutants into the air, a state or local authority must determine whether those pollutants are a single source or part of a [...]
Billions loaned to California energy projects in wake of Solyndra by Daniel J. Goldstein and Serene Fang for California Watch The U.S. Department of Energy has moved ahead with 4.5 billion in new loans for solar energy projects [...]