Gathr Films
In celebration of Earth Day, environmental documentary Bidder 70 will be shown in theaters across the country on April 22. Documenting activist Tim DeChristopher‘s trial and conviction for disrupting a federal oil and gas lease auction in Utah, the film will screen one day after his release from federal prison.
As previously reported, the 31-year-old received a two-year prison sentence in 2011 for bidding on, and winning, millions of dollars worth of land parcels under false pretenses at a Bureau of Land Management auction in 2008.
DeChristopher’s case also drew attention from environmentalists, including many who saw him as acting in the name of conservation and climate action. He was “acting on behalf of every landscape left on the planet,” argued author Bill McKibben.
The film, which is being distributed by Gathr Films, will be released in a crowd-funded “theatrical-on-demand” format. Individuals must order a ticket in advance, but they will only be charged if the demand warrants a screening in their location.
Following the Earth Day screening, filmgoers will be able to watch a live-streamed question and answer session with DeChristopher and filmmakers Beth and George Gage, according to Gathr.
Gathr founder and CEO Scott Glosserman said in a press release, “Having Tim at the Salt Lake screening to talk about his experience, the day after his release from the federal prison system, is amazing, and being able to stream that discussion to audiences all over the country is truly special.”
For more information about the film, click here. Tickets are available for purchase at Gathr Film.
Visit EcoWatch’s ENERGY and CLIMATE CHANGE pages for more related news on this topic.
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good to mention that one can also purchase “Bidder 70″
EcoWatch,
If you are interested in reporting on our fight in Illinois:
WHY WE OPPOSE THE FRACKING REGULATORY BILL (AND SUPPORT A MORATORIUM) IN ILLINOIS
by: Richard Fedder
Southern Illinoisans Against Fracking Our Environment (SAFE)
Pro-fracking groups in Illinois are touting HB2615 as the “strictest regulatory plan in the country.” That is not so. The state of New York has declared a moratorium on fracking until the likely impact on land, air, water, and public health has been fully examined by experts.
The people of Illinois deserve no less.
Granted, the proposed Illinois regulations are stricter than in states like Texas and North Dakota, which rushed into high-volume fracking as far back as 2002 without any thought to the consequences. At the time, the oil and gas industry was making grand promises that fracking was no different than conventional drilling and could be done safely without regulation. We now know that those promises were false. Fracking is not conventional oil drilling.
“Strict” regulations are not necessarily “safe”. Right now, the EPA is conducting a major nation-wide study to determine whether fracking can be done safely and, if so, how. What sense does it make to frack first, before the EPA study is completed?
Americans have a remarkable can-do attitude. We often plunge in first and fix things later. But if we poison our water supply, it cannot be fixed.
That is why SAFE, a grassroots group of affected residents from Southern Illinois, is supporting a moratorium bill, SB1418, which bars high-volume fracking for two years and sets up an investigative task force of scientific experts and stake holders (from all sides) to examine the risks to public health, the environment, and local economies, before fracking can proceed.
Let’s not be guinea pigs for the oil and gas industry. The shale gas will still be there in two years. With prices at record lows now, the gas will only be more valuable to us later.
We at SAFE recognize that HB2615 has some good features. In part, this is due to our own determined fact-finding and spirited discussions with the attorney general (who helped write the bill), and with county boards and state legislators.
In particular, HB2615 is much better than other states at holding the industry accountable AFTER our water is poisoned. But environmentalists, and just plain ordinary people, would prefer that their water not be poisoned in the first place.
Or even simpler — We do not want our land to dry up because this giant industry has sucked up all of our potable (“sweet”) water.
HB2615 simply has too many gaping holes in the protections it provides. These include:
WATER SCARCITY. The fracking industry will use unprecedented amounts of our sweet water – up to 1 trillion gallons. See http://www.dontfractureillinois.net/big-oil-tells-big-lies-about-fracking/ and http://www.dontfractureillinois.net/water-for-oil-a-fools-trade-richard-fedder/ HB2615 does require the fracking industry to identify its water sources. But it does not give local or state governments the authority to limit water usage, not even during a drought.
Last month, one frack of one well in Michigan used 21 million gallons of water. If the Illinois shale pans out, we anticipate 10,000 wells. According to the industry, each well may be fracked up to 18 times. Where is this water to come from? And who will have priority when the wells run dry – the industry or the people of Southern Illinois? HB2615 does not say.
TOXIC WASTE – The frack water will come back up as toxic waste. The industry calls this “flowback”. It is saturated with salts, heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, toxic chemicals added by the industry, and radioactive elements (notably radium and radon). It cannot be cleaned or filtered, and should be classified as “hazardous waste” according to the federal Clean Water Act.
But the “Haliburton Loophole” of 2005 exempts the fracking industry from compliance with the Clean Water Act. How then are we going to safely dispose of one trillion gallons of toxic and radioactive waste? HB2615 answers by just pushing the problem over to other regulations not in the bill, and not designed for dealing with hazardous waste. Without proper regulation, this toxic waste is bound to contaminate our ground water.
EARTHQUAKES – Fracking has been shown to trigger earthquakes along faults in Oklahoma and Ohio that have been dormant for thousands of years. Southern Illinois has several large active faults. A recent U.S. Geological Survey showed the New Madrid fault to be the most unstable in the country, “overdue” to explode.
No one can predict when the next earthquake will occur. But when it does, well casings will snap like twigs and toxic waste will pour into our groundwater. It is crazy, and just plain irresponsible for HB2615 to permit fracking in a major active fault zone.
GREENHOUSE EFFECT – The U.S. has been reducing carbon dioxide emissions, as more power plants convert to natural gas. But while carbon dioxide emissions have been going down, natural gas emissions have been going up, due to fracking. And the problem is: Natural gas (CH4) is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2) as a greenhouse gas.
Two recent studies by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that 4% to 9% of the total methane gas produced from fracking leaks directly into the atmosphere. According to a Princeton study, 3.2% leakage is the break-even point. At 4% leakage, burning frack gas will produce more global warming than burning coal. At 9% it will be a climate disaster.
HB2615 contains no provision to monitor methane leakage. In fact, it does not monitor air pollution at all.
HEALTH MONITORING – Recent studies suggest that fracking is a major threat to public health. Just as with smoking, the industry denies that fracking is the cause of frequently reported health problems. But one study shows a sharp increase in breast cancer clusters in the frack zones of Texas. Another study shows an unusual 25% rate of asthma in the vicinity of the Texas frack fields. A study in Pennsylvania showed large numbers of cows dying, and even more becoming infertile from exposure to fracking.
The reader is also referred to Pennsylvania’s growing “list of the harmed”, which currently documents over 800 persons who believe their health has been damaged by fracking. See http://pennsylvaniaallianceforcleanwaterandair.wordpress.com/the-list/.
HB2615 does not address such public health issues.
WORKER SAFETY – HB2615 has no provisions requiring workers who handle toxic materials to wear adequate protective clothing. Nor is that current practice in the industry.
LOCAL COSTS – No one has examined the likely costs to small towns and rural counties from fracking. Emergency equipment and training will be required for fire-fighters to handle gas fires, toxic spills, and blowouts. In addition, frack-workers generally have no health insurance. Their health needs will strain and even bankrupt local hospitals who have to provide free emergency care. Country roads will be torn up by as many as a thousand trucks per day. Crime rates have tripled in North Dakota fracking communities.
Yet HB2615 does not provide for revenue from fracking to go to these local communities to repair and maintain their infrastructure.
ENFORCEMENT – Regulations can be no stronger than the agency which enforces them. IDNR has a terrible track record of enforcement.
In summary, HB2615 is just not good enough to protect the people of Illinois.
As biologist Sandra Steingraber put it: “Fracking is an accident-prone, carcinogen-dependent, climate-destroying enterprise that uses our land as its factory floor and turns [rural] communities into industrial zones.”
“Wherever fracking goes, air is polluted, water is contaminated, roads clog with trucks, property values plummet, and people get sick.”
The jobs that fracking creates – few as they will be – are temporary and toxic.
Fracking is not inevitable. We owe it to our children and our children’s children to oppose any regulations, however “strict”, which are not adequate to protect our land, air, and water.
The only reasonable choice is to support SB1418, and demand a Moratorium on fracking in Illinois.
Richard Fedder
(for SAFE)