EcoWatch Interviews Public Herald About Fracking & Triple Divide

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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.

Recent Study Says Shale Brines Are Migrating to Drinking Water

Carol French of Bradford County, Pa., told Public Herald in a June 2012 interview how she believes Marcellus and fracking fluids have migrated from deep underground to contaminate her drinking water. photo: J.B.Pribanic

New Study: Fluids From Marcellus Shale Likely Seeping Into PA Drinking Water by Abrahm Lustgarten for ProPublica New research has concluded that salty, mineral-rich fluids deep beneath Pennsylvania’s natural gas fields are likely seeping upward thousands of feet into drinking [...]

Locals Fight Against Act 13, Pennsylvania’s New Fracking Law

A natural gas well pad in Bradford County, Pa., employing the controversial method hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Local legislator's want to decide where these wells are located in their districts, but Act 13 would strip them of that authority and pass it on to the state. photo: J.B.Pribanic

Local leaders sue for right to control location of gas wells Natural gas contributions, lobbying dollars flow by Alice Su for iWatch News When Pennsylvania passed a state law that stripped local authority over where potentially hazardous natural [...]

EPA Sets Air Quality Regulations for Fracking Emissions: Effective 2015

A natural gas well during the 'flaring' stage. photo: J.B. Pribanic

The EPA’s First Fracking Rules — Limited and Delayed by for Lena Groeger ProPublica The Environmental Protection Agency issued the first-ever national air pollution regulations for fracking on Wednesday. First proposed in July 2011, the final rules have been welcomed by environmental groups [...]

Chesapeake Energy Misinformed Shareholders About Impact of Well Blowout

Natural gas drilling at night. photo: Joshua B. Pribanic

Chesapeake’s Environmental Assessment of Well Blowout is Attained Through a Conflict of Interest In an October 15, 2011 news release, Chesapeake Energy stated “the public was never in danger ” when a well blowout, also called a well [...]

EPA Hears Public Outcry: Natural Gas Industry Hears ‘More of the Same’

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EPA Hears Testimony on Proposed New Source Performance Standards and National Emission Standards for Oil & Natural Gas Hazardous Air Pollutants The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) heard 103 pubic testimonies for over 11 hours in Pittsburgh at [...]