Energy companies hope Gasland gets no love at the Oscars

Documentaries don’t get a lot of love in America, but an Oscar nomination can certainly grab them attention and a prime spot on your Netflix queue. Gasland, a documentary by Josh Fox on the issue of hydraulic fracturing of natural gas, also known as hydrofracking, is generating a lot of buzz. The film has riled up natural gas companies who are now trying to spoil Fox’s hope for an Academy Award.

In Hollywood, getting attention for a film can be a costly affair. Big budget movies like Transformers or Tron spend millions on advertising so you’ll buy a ticket. All Josh Fox had to do to promote his film was to get a lobbying firm called Energy In Depth angry. Created by industry heavyweights like BP, Halliburton, and Shell the firm is giving Gasland a lot of free publicity because they claim that the documentary contains falsehoods when it comes to hydrofracking.

Hydrofracking uses a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals to get to natural gas that can be as much as 8,000 feet below ground. That mixture is literally shot into the ground to break up rock to release the gas. The problem is that the hydrofracking process can wreak havoc on nearby residents by contaminating their drinking water. One of the most shocking scenes in Gasland shows a homeowner literally lighting their tap water on fire.

Energy In Depth went after Fox and Gasland shortly after the film was released with web content meant to debunk the film, but they upped their efforts in recent weeks. Fox appeared with actor Mark Ruffalo in front of Congress to ask them to authorize an immediate federal moratorium on drilling, permitting, and fracking until the government could prove that the process was safe. Of course, Energy In Depth went on the attack.

Energy In Depth petitioned the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to remove the film from Oscar contention because “the film has value as an expression of stylized fiction” and “draws heavily on testimonials from individuals who actively oppose natural gas development in general, and the use of hydraulic fracturing – a commonly deployed, decades-old technology for stimulating oil and natural gas – in particular.”

Fox set out on his Facebook page to challenge the claims by Energy In Depth, but the lobbying form has a bigger problem. By confronting Fox and his film, they are only fanning the flames of the curious. People will start to talk about the film on social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook, or even research the topic. Heaven forbid that they find facts such as the 2005 Energy Bill that contains the “Halliburton Loophole” that allows over 500 toxic chemicals to be used in fracking even though they aren’t allowed under the the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Superfund Act.