Complain About Fracking Pollution, Get Sued by Fracking Company

Let's see if I've got this straight now.  If you're able to set your well water on fire because of a nearby fracking operation, the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech does NOT include the right to show pictures of your burning water on YouTube.  On the other hand, “Free Speech” does allow a corporation to spend billions of dollars to bribe Congress or purchase an election, even though no actual “speech” was involved.

Texas landowner Steve Lipsky has shown photos and a video of his flaming well water, courtesy of the fracking pollution caused by Range Resources.  The whole thing started in 2010 when Lipsky discovered he could ignite the water in his well and in the streams that run through his property.  He showed this on a YouTube video, and he was one of the people interviewed in Gasland Part II.  At first, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered Range Resources to reimburse Lipsky for the cost of fresh drinking water.

But later, the EPA withdrew its order against Range Resources — no reason given.  Next, the Texas Railroad Commission — which oversees fracking in Texas — said there wasn't enough evidence linking Range Resources to Steve Lipsky's flaming water.

And this paved the way for Range Resources to sue Steve Lipsky for defaming the company's reputation for “environmental stewardship.”  Steve Lipsky's attorney said:

“Range has a right to protect its reputation, but the speech they’re complaining about is protected speech.  If we’re going to allow companies to sue people for defamation every time they don’t like what’s being said, then that basically allows corporations to silence public participation.  Defending yourself against a big company is a daunting task for most people.  Range is showing it’s willing to try to ruin someone with litigation.”

As you probably guessed, Range Resources has not responded to reporters' requests for comment.

Gasland Part II

I haven’t even seen the first Gasland yet.  It’s on our Netflix queue, along with Matt Damon’s The Promised Land.

Gasland Part II is about to be shown on HBO, which we don’t get so we’ll have to wait ‘til the DVD comes out.  Josh Fox — producer of Gasland I and II — says he wants President Obama to see Gasland Part II:

“We want the president to watch the movie, and we want him to meet with the people who are in it.”  He says Obama is misguided in his support of fracking:

“It looks like he's really sincere and earnest in his desire to take on climate change, but he's got the completely wrong information and thus the completely wrong plan.”

Unfortunately the deep-pocketed fracking industry is able to buy a lot more access to the White House than a bunch of lowly treehuggers.  And this is one of the main themes of Gasland Part II.  Part II reiterates a lot of the same information from Part I, i.e. the contamination of entire neighborhoods caused by fracking.

But Gasland Part II goes more into how a powerful industry has been able to buy off our “elected” representatives and “regulatory” agencies; why our watchdogs have all mutated into corporate lapdogs.  Or as Josh Fox puts it:

“I felt like I could see it: a horizontal well bore, drilled down into the earth, snaking underneath the Congress, shooting money up through the chamber at such high pressure that it blew the top off of our democracy.  Another layer of contamination due to fracking, not the water, not the air, but our government.”

Very well put.  Gasland Parts I and II and The Promised Land are must-sees.  The more viewers these three movies can get, the fewer useful idiots the fracking industry will have.