This fracking is dangerous stuff.  I agree this needs to stop.  

Ed the scientist.  Wow, he knows everything.  

ED.  GO FRACK YOURSELF!!!!!

This is America

Just another liberal lamenting the fact that he asked permission for something, was denied, went ahead and did it anyway and got arrested because of it.  Liberals: Always willing to bitch about not being allowed to break the law (yes, even ones they don’t like).

The First Amendment does not mean that anyone with a camera can go any where they please, whenever they feel like it; try telling the Secret Service that because you own a camera you’re entitled to film in the Oval Office.

If it was a public hearing then he had the right to be there. There is always more than one side to a story and I did not see any other video recording equipment set up in the room. So I’m wondering if he was the only one trying to video tape the meeting. The city council of my city does not allow video taping of any public hearings for anyone. Maybe there is more to this story than what this segment contained????? Just asking…………

the ego on this guy… “Look Congressman X, it’s Josh Fox!”

It’s not clear how someone attending a “public hearing” can be arrested for “unlawful entry”.  Fox claims he filed for proper credentials and never recieved them.  Representative Brad Miller was quoted as stating,”I was chair of the Subcommitte for four years, and we frequently had people show up  the day of a hearing to film.  We asked for their name but, they were told if they would not disrupt the hearing, they were free to record.  A couple of times staff said, ’You’re getting in the way, don’t stand there, but other than that, I do not recall anything like this.  We certainly never turned anyone away for not providing 24 hours notice.” Miller did express a motion to allow the recording, which was tabled.

An ABC news unit was blocked from filming, as well.  Subcommitte Chairman Andy Harris (MD), who appears to have ordered the blockout over the protests of several democratic committee members in attendence declined to comment. 

 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72298.html

http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/02/01/gasland-director-josh-fox-arrested-for-attempting-to-film-congressional-hearing/

HBO is dancing a jig over this happening, someone down there is saying “You cant buy advertising like this and this is free, THANK YOU REPUBLICANS”.

There is a whiff of ……… republican fear and a hint of……..Koch Bros. SWEAT cause this is exactly the kind of validation of the GASLAND assertions of a Republican to Koch connection they don’t need at this time.

I am sure there are a few republicans on their knees in front of the Brothers right now, “We is a SAW-RHEE MASSA Koch, we dont need no wuppin MASSA Koch we wont do it again, please dont stop the money MASSA Koch nooooobody can prove nuthin MASSA Koch we be careful really we will.”

“It’s not clear how someone attending a “public hearing” can be arrested for “unlawful entry”.”

I know, my head hurts just trying to understand the logic there, but there is none. My first reaction was WTF!!

 Frak the Frackers and stop all this Fracking around and stop the Fracking.

There its all smurfy now.

I was all “WTF” about it followed by “”have they gone insane to do something like this?” which led to “Yes…Yes They have”.

It was a PUBLIC hearing. PUBLIC officials. He needed no permission to film.

You can actually just watch the whole hearing right here: http://science.house.gov/hearing/energy-and-environment-subcommittee-epa-hydraulic-fracturing-research . This makes what the Republicans did rather pointless and petty.

What the hell?!!!!!!!

What a moron you are. The issue is whether some politician should restrict freedom of speech. Since you are an idiot, remember freedom of speech is especially designed to protect those we don’t agree with. 

Not really, because they know most people are not going to watch that anyway. Fox represents a messenger to a more mainstream awareness, and that is what they were trying to stop. A lot of what they do relies on knowing most people are plugged into only mainstream media channels (and even lefty docos are ultimately mainstream culture).

The “credentials” process and subsequent handcuffing suggest otherwise.  The Supreme Court hearings are PUBLIC, too – when was the last time you saw one on TV?

The primary issue here is, of course, the expression one. We can certainly have a discussion on licensing and permits, however, the arrest itself makes this out of the ordinary and clearly indicates that the Republican majority is interested in keeping fracking out of the discussion. And, the fracking discussion is indeed troubling for the Koch Brothers/Republican coalition. In the regulatory world, the onus is on the developer/OEM to prove the safety of a new product. Boeing had to prove the safety, the airworthiness of the B787. No one had the obligation or burden of proving it unsafe.

Congressman X’s response – “Who?”

That and coal power. And oil drilling. Pipelines too. In fact, we should outlaw natural gas altogether. And, of course, nuclear power. Then you can plug your Chevy Volt into the sun.

Filming is not speech.

It is too much work to make the connection, is it? You probably think rich people paying through super PACs is speech.

How does that follow? 

He wasn’t the only one video taping the meeting. There is video available of him being cuffed and escorted out. He needed to be a credentialed journalist to film in the hearing. He was not credentialed but showed up filming anyway. That was why he was arrested.

Nobody mentions that Dick Cheney’s secret meetings on energy produced an exemption from any kind of regulation of fracking. Look it up.

No, we should just do it as safely as we can. Not 30 miles from me, in the heart of the Marcellus Shale Field, peoples cattle are dying. These aren’t pets, they’re families’ livelihood. It’s how they feed their kids and pay for their homes. This didn’t happen till the fracking started. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but shouldn’t we find out for sure? IS this not OUR government, don’t we, the people own it? Is there some over-arching reason that the truth should be kept from “we the people”? Isn’t a free press integral to the concept of a free society? Tom Jefferson thought so, Ron PAul thinks so, why don’t you?

Yes, Pablo, it is. You’re not that stupid.

Everyone treats Fox like he’s an unimpeachable source of fact regarding fracking when his movie is actually riddled with errors and assumptions on the subject. He makes numerous declarations about the practice that are inaccurate and yet have become accepted into the public narrative. That alone would be cause to keep him out of a fact-finding meeting. His arrival without credentials shows his hubris in declaring himself an expert.

No, Ed the journalist was asking questions. Do you deny the deaths of livestock or are you just a partisan hack? Can you give me a reason this should be kept from the public eye?

KEVIN. GO FRACK YOURSELF!!!!!

And freedom of speech must be protected,because, unfortunately, less and less of that.

Michael Moore wannabe.

That is actually one of Fox’s misstated “facts” in his film. Fracking was granted exemptions in certain legislations but the practice is still regulated under other legislations. His claim they are free of any regulation is par for his hype.

Gasbag interviews Gasland, classic, has been talking to a never will be.

Funny to see such a smart man say something so stupid.
 

It’s sad to say, but we are now “A Nation of the (poor) People, (run) by the (rich) People and for (90% of the time) the Corporations (since they are now ‘people’),” and this just proves it.

Imagine if this guys was a Tea Party film maker documenting an OPEN congressional hearing during the HUNDREDS of Health Care hearings and the subject was about supposed ‘Death Panels’?

Their refusal to let him film the session only serves to spark a few questions: “Who denied the filming and why? (I don’t believe the ‘He didn’t have permission/credentials’ excuse.) What are they hiding? Who was scheduled to testify that day? Was it someone from the Gas Industry who didn’t want to shown lying/looking bad in an upcoming documentary?

 Let me help you with this: if you fracture the rock (the bed rock) to release gas so it can be sucked out you break the rock on which the ground water sits and the water sinks down and mixes with the chemicals used to create the explosion that fractures the rock, up comes the gas and the chemicals EVERYWHERE once you break the rock it does not magically reform and harden its broken FOREVER and it takes decades for all those chemicals to rise up and disperse, THAT’S DECADES OF CONTAMINATION, plus the more bedrock you break the more unstable the ground becomes, you know the ground houses and farms sit on, there is some evidence that this is why the seismic activity in previously geologically stable areas is increasing YOU KNOW LIKE THE EARTH QUAKE THAT DAMAGED THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT and they are fracking everywhere.

The fracking process is designed to break the rock that the gas is trapped in, and that is done by causing an explosion which propagates through the rock like a tsunami through the ocean and the wave of energy spreads until the energy of this wave dissipates THAT’S MILES AND MILES in every direction, and they are doing this every few miles so hundreds of square miles end up being fractured and there is no way to create enough suction pressure to stop the gas from rising with the chemicals miles and miles away from the wells.

The chemicals used are all known to cause cancer and other illnesses and the oil and gas companies are refusing to tell the government exactly which chemicals they are using and in what quantities they always use the imprecise term “SEVERAL TONS”, this chemical mix is an explosive compound when mixed and it is designed to fracture as much rock as possible because the more rock you break the more gas you release and the more you release the more you can capture at the well but it also releases more gas to do what gases do which is to move and it moves upwards following the path of least resistance. so while the well captures a lot of gas the bulk of the gas is rising up and coming out of the ground EVERYWHERE AROUND THE WELL SITES.

It is a dangerous bio-hazard they are creating and they know and they do not want to accept either responsibility or liability for what they are doing preferring to just take the money and run.

Why is not filming news worthy stories not part of “freedom of the press” in our 1st Amendment, Pablo?  Because a voice in your head says so?

No they have a blanket exemption from revealing the chemicals they are using as a TRADE SECRET, and the same goes for the Quantity of those chemicals and there has been no legislation at the federal level to regulate fracking at all, Cheney made sure that it was to be left up to the states where fracking occurs (their territory their right to regulate) what if any regulations were needed and in state after state they flood legislators with campaign cash as long as they do little if any regulating, and they use the TRADE SECRETS exemption to shut down any effort to compel disclosure of any information WHAT-SO-EVER.

That’s why the republicans and the gas and oil companies are so upset about the EPA investigating the issue of fracking and determining that there is dangerous contamination of ground water and the soil and the resulting bio-hazard conditions created as a by product of  fracking as has been noted in the EPAs report. and GASLANDS conclusions.

Then help me with something else. How do you blame fracking for gas being in the water supply of areas decades BEFORE fracking had taken place? Fox himself has acknowledged this to be the case, and he still went ahead and declared fracking was to blame. Is there some kind of retroactive tectonic phenomenon we don’t know about? 

 It is up to each court to determine iif cameras will be allowed unless a law requires it or allows it.

The Supreme Court has decided for the time being not to allow cameras in because they do not want lawyers playing to the cameras, they have begun allowing the audio recording of the proceedings seeing that as an effective way to inform the public without creating the chaos of grandstanding for the TV audience, most times they release the audio just after the proceeding, in some few cases they have withheld the recordings until the decision is issued.

My name is Edward Hashbarger; I am a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a disabled police officer (retired). I am a resident of Jefferson County Ohio, where I own a small farm of 38 acres. My wife and I have attended several “Shale Gas Workshops for Landowners” given by our local Farm Bureau in co-operation with the Ohio State University Extension Office. At one of these meetings, I questioned a representative from Ohio Department of National Resources (ODNR) and Chesapeake Energy’s manager of corporate development, about my wishes not to lease my land or minerals. I was told, “We will take them any way thru mandatory pooling. This threat of taking landowners property is being done in Ohio.

The Marcellus Gas Drilling Companies (Chesapeake Energy, Hess, Range Resources and Marquette Exploration) are using an Ohio law called Mandatory Pooling (Ohio Revised Code 1509.27) to strip landowners, like myself of our surface and mineral rights and give them to PRIVATE oil & gas companies for PROFIT. This law allows drilling companies to form a drilling unit with adjoining property owners, like myself, who have not leased. The Technical Advisory Council on Oil & Gas (T.A.C) makes the determination on who is stripped of the minerals. This council, which is appointed by the Governor, consists of eight members, six represent oil & gas producers, one represents royalty interest and one represents the public. These members review the application for mandatory pooling (7 out of 8 members have oil & gas interest) and makes a determination. Senate Bill 165 of Ohio’s 128 General Assembly has more info on the T.A.C..

I respectfully request that you please research this further. I really need help getting this word out to other concerned citizens. It is sad that our elected officials in the state of Ohio think so little of its citizen’s civil liberties. Please feel free to contact me regarding this injustice to our environment and our life liberty and pursuit of happiness.

Edward Hashbarger

Jefferson county Ohio

Email ohiopatriots4truth@yahoo.com

What puppet master inputted that in your head.  I have seen the documentary and you obviously have not.  I would say that he has become an expert on fracking… far more than the natural gas industry’s highly paid scientists who’s job his to lobby on behalf of the natural gas industry. 

The question you should be asking is, if the republicons and their beneficiaries, the natural gas industry, as nothing to hide why would they be afraid of Josh Fox?

C-span recordings are rather simple and do not always capture all the presentation as the cameras are generally fixed and moved only the least amount necessary and often the evidence presented on video screens and boards is not captured by the cameras.

That’s not accurate. The EPA is given a list of the chemicals used, the proprietary aspect is the specific mixture used. They reveal the contents, just not the formula.

 None of that gas had Benzine or any of the other Man made chemicals that show up after fracking begins and most of the gas that occurs naturally is present from two sources ONE the limited amount that escapes from natural formations in the stone, TWO is ancient debris fields that has been covered by soil and water, such as bogs or swamps or vegetation caught under land slides and mud slides thousands of years ago and in those cases it is not coming from rock formations.

 THATS AN OUT AND OUT LIE, and your repeating it.

 Cell Phones and Pads, stop acting as if it was Ok to arrest this man, he applied for the permits and they were not ready when he got there.

and you are lying.

Obama is the Worst Fracking President we have ever had in the US.

 what little is known about the chemicals is because of run off from spills and blow back from the wells and the frackers go absolutely ape shit if anyone comes near the well site before it is capped and producing. In Virginia they prosecuted some drillers for assaulting a county deputy who was out with others trying to find a farmers missing cows he was wearing a poncho so his uniform was not visible and they thought he was trying to get on to a drilling site because they had some local news crew around the area asking about the well a few weeks earlier trying to find out what was making a very bad smell that was being smelled miles away which had been caused by blow back from the well.

There were no other journalists or media filming this hearing.

You’re right, when the footage airs of him being ordered out by the rethuglican chairman and  arrested by capitol police, it will be more powerful than the hearing its self.

So you believe that Watergate should be worn as a badge of honor?

Stop acting like anybody can have their personal whims permitted in the Nation’s capital. As a Democratic member of the committe said, maybe they should let anyone come in, then it would crowd out the chambers and no meeting would take place. 

(your caps lock is on) Really, I read that in a NY Times piece exploring the facts of the movie. Guess they are in the pockets of the energy companies too, huh?.

The puppet master was a NY Times article exploring the facts of the film. His signature scene in the movie which I saw was igniting tap water in somebody’s kitchen, and attributing that to fracking. He is on video acknowledging that gas has been present in drinking water decades before fracking had been employed, and he even volenteered stories of people igniting tap water go back to the 1930s. Try exploring facts a little before crying out and name-calling. I’m not a shill, I’m curious about details, which you clearly are not.

In the movie he also attributed a mass fish kill to the drilling when it was found to be the result of coal mining in the area. I’m saying the man is not the expert everyone deems him to be and warrants some curiosity.

It’s the old “push it as far as you can go and compare apples to oranges” talking point.

In other words, it’s a public hearing that you can’t take a video camera into – just as I said it was.  Or is only the Executive and Judicial branches allowed to decide which hearings it restricts access to and which it does not?

This is comical.  The building has rules.  You don’t just get to go where ever you want, whenever you want … JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER FEDERAL BUILDING IN THE COUNTRY.  This guy knew the rules, he applied for permission, was denied, so he broke the rule anyway. Now people are outraged he got arrested for knowingly breaking the rules. Tough.

You’re right it’s actually all really dangerous and causes lots of deaths.  

You have now outdone yourself. Is writing speech? Is painting expression? Is stupidity just infantile fun for you?

As Gunwalker is a ‘Badge’ of dishonor.

Then the James Okeefe video of Dead Voters being ‘Allowed” to vote is OK, during the New Hampshire primary. The NH AG said it was not free speech, it was illegal; Free speech for Liberals and not for conservatives?

That was an enlightening post, Mr Hashbarger.  In thirty-eight states, big oil can literally “make you an offer you can’t refuse.”   Even in residential areas forced pooling has become problematic; often placing the “little guy” at odds with a well- financed and legally represented opposition. 

  http://projects.propublica.org/tables/forced-pooling

His credentials , are the Bill of Rights ..nothing else is needed . Keep in mind , ABC NEWS WAS ALSO KICKED OUT 

ABC WAS THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   AND MADE TO LEAVE , DO SOME RESEARCH BEFORE YOU RUN YOUR MOUTH

 Natural gas seeps into water wells in many areas of our country.  I remember going to by grandmother’s ranch in South Texas and you could light the sink faucet at times.  Not because of fracking… but because natural gas naturally is in the ground and comes up with the water.  That’s why it’s called natural gas. 

This guy is a scam artist posing at a “documentary film maker” who is pushing his environmental alarmism agenda.

Thank you for the informative post.Continue to blow that horn,Ohioans need to be educated about our KOCH BROS.Gov. Kasich.He’s even pandering to the gas frackers by having the State of Ohio Address held in Steubenville.These Cons forgot about Jefferson Co. when the steel mills and coal mines went belly up,now they’re back ready to suck some shale.This pathetic excuse for a governor has 3 more years to continue to screw Ohioans,I certainly hope Jefferson Co. has educated themselves before the next election.KEEP UP THE WORK OF EDUCATING FELLOW OHIOANS, MY BROTHER FROM THE VALLEY.GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!

Don’t zombie righties already spend their days staring at the sun to energize their feeding fest at night? Seems like you don’t have any problems with solar energy.

NO, we the people are not in charge of the gov. The Supremist right wing court destroyed that idea with “Citizens United”. Corporations own it and elections. That had to be their worst decision in the history of this country. Corporations are people? Can we give the entire corporation the death penalty if they murder someone? Oh wait, a little fine and slap on the wrist is good, right?

It’s freedom of the press, moron.  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

They commited fraud for attempting to register with a dead person. Sometimes you righttards don’t know your AZZ from a hole in the ground.

It’s not natural gas that’s really the problem. It’s the fracking chemicals used in hydraulic fracking to bring the gas out. You know, things like Benzene?

Besides being a public hearing, he was not denied.

Did I miss it in this article? No where does it say the Congressional committee gave this clown permission to video. Shouldn’t that have been the logical way of handling this issue, or does this clown think he can overlook that?

OK, so human beings  filming a public event for public consumption  isn’t speech, but corporations spending money anonymously is.

I guess that’s the same logic that allows Andy Harris to be against government health care, unless he’s the one getting it.

What seems to be missing here is that he earlier said he did not ask for credentials till less than 24 hours prior to the hearing and that the credentials are actually issued by a committee of journalists, not the committee or legislators. This was nothing but a grandstanding stunt by Fox to get publicity. OTOH there is plenty of egg for everyone’s face as the committee should have questioned him under oath about his efforts to  get credentialed (which is a reasonable time, place, manner regulation to keep video crews from swarming a committee meeting) I worked for a state legislative committee where the chair did just that for a film crew that had an ax to grind. They admitted that they had only called several times and were not able to reach anyone but did not leave any messages. I suspect something similar here. The committee basically fell for it and looked like the bad guy.

Actually ABC is on the record denying they sent a crew to film and that any one saying otherwise were imposers. Also, Fox keeps changing his story as to his efforts to get credentialed. Its gone from less than 24 hours to “several attempts” . Finally, what got him arrested was disrupting the proceedings by continuing to try to film after being asked several times to stop by Capitol police.

Only after the last tree is cut down.The last of the water poisoned.The last animal destroyed.Only then will you realize you can not eat money.Cree Indian Prophecy

What an interesting turn of events.  When I made my origional post (20 hours ago) I had no idea that ABC would deny sending a film crew to the subcommittee hearing.  Certainly, one has to wonder if Josh Fox’s interests go any further than promoting his second documentary.  More’s the pity, as I think peoples concerns on “fracking” have some merit and his actions are likely to cloud the issue.

Apparently, this story is still developing.

http://www.energyindepth.org/josh-fox-abc-and-truth-in-journalism/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/01/house-republicans-order-j_n_1246971.html

Thank you Ed Hasbharger.  Our commercial system is in bed with our political system, it seems.I am sorry to hear of the threat to you and your fellow farmers – our country needs you, yet you are being destroyed with the help of the policy makers.  I appreciate the information, and best wishes to you – God help us.

That isn’t a lie it’s the facts.  Gasland was accurate, or not, about some thing in 2009 when the movie was shot.  Today,  even in Texas mandatory disclosure of tracking fluids is the law, as it is in Europe as well.  And it should be.  Very few people in the drilling industry have any problem with that.  Halliburton are even developing a completely food based fluid.  

As a liberal Europan progressive,  which makes me look like Leon Trotsky next to US so-called liberals,  permit the observation:  Staying home, or voting Green because of tracking would be somewhat counter productive.

I’ve had to sit through that droning monotone so often that even the banjo playing is a welcome relief.  The move raises some issues,  most of which have been solved since 2009, and some like the fish and the tap on fire didn’t actually have any connection anyway.  

I read somewhere that this committee meeting was carried live, or available later,  as normal operating procedure on CSPAN.  Is that correct?  Doesn’t sound like a narrative to hide something from the American people that only plucky documentary maker can reveal. But the scene of Fox in handcuffs will be on the poster guaranteed.