Friday, September 28, 2012

Matt Damon’s Anti-Fracking Movie Financed By OPEC Nation

A new film starring Matt Damon presents American oil and natural gas producers as money-grubbing villains purportedly poisoning rural American towns. It is therefore of particular note that it is financed in part by the royal family of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, reports Heritage.

The UAE as a major OPEC oil producer sees fracking as a major source of oil production competition.

Based on the clip, the film looks pretty boring, but the key point, and most assuredly this won't be in the film, is that IF there is a fracking problem, for a libertarian it's simply a private property issue. People can't do harm to other peoples property, if they do they must stop and pay damages.

The frackers can also attempt to reach an agreement in advance with any property owners whose water supplies may be damaged. That's how a free market-private property society works. The answer isn't a central planning absolute pro-fracking or anti-fracking. Leave it up to the private parties involved to decide. If a farmers property would become damaged by fracking, it may be worthwhile for him to allow it, if he is paid, say, $5 million. On the other hand, if it isn't worth the fracker, $5 million to disrupt the farming, the fracking doesn't occur.

7 comments:

  1. Looks like Matt Damon picked up from his character in Syriana to advocate on behalf of gulf state sheiks.

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    1. It looks more like his character in Team America overestimated his actual IQ.

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  2. Fracking is extremely dangerous to our water supply. Just because this oil-rich family is sponsoring the film, in no way means the message it sends is wrong. I'm sure the oil-rich family could care less about the environment, and are only interested in increasing their profits, so I'm not supporting them, but that does not mean they are not accidentally spreading a good message. If you have not seen Gasland, I would recommend it. Maybe some oil-rich people are behind that too, but lighting your faucet water on fire is eye opening enough for me not to care.

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    1. Are you really this gullible, or are you being paid to post this? Gasland is a ridiculous joke to anyone even vaguely familiar with hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, or even the depths the Marcellus and Utica shales sit at. Spend some time in places like Waynesburg PA, Quaker City OH, Normantown WV, where everybody's water is fine, yet many people are working. The worst effect of natural gas extraction in Waynesburg has been TRAFFIC in a small town ill-equipped to handle what can only be described as a boom - and this during a low-point in the price of natural gas.

      Fracking may not be PERFECTLY safe. Neither is driving. It may be that on occasion a water supply may be compromised. Having spent years in the gas industry in this part of the world, I personally haven't seen one dissatisfied property owner, nor even one protest against drilling in what is an absolute hot bed of natural gas drilling, I feel very, very confident in saying that the process is very safe and beneficial to property owners, neighbors, and certainly the surrounding (typically economically depressed) community which has most definitely benefitted from the industry.

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    2. "Fracking is extremely dangerous to our water supply."

      Farming is far more harmful to the water supply than fracking is.

      I love all of these folks who watched 'Gasland' and suddenly they're experts on the water supply.

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  3. The people who argue so hard against the use of hydraulic fracturing have no idea how it is implemented nor do they know how it works or the tiresome amount of legal issues involved in opening a new reservoir.

    Most issues involved in the short term harm of fracturing has been eliminated. Just like anything else, it's always the minorities voice that you hear and not the majority. Go ask any business owner in any of the major towns surrounding the fields in Mid/North-East PA, Northern WV and now as it expands to the western edge of the reserve in OH with Utica. The Oil and Gas industry has brought millions of dollars in revenue to not only local businesses but to landowners as well.

    There are thousands of wells that have been fractured and in production throughout PA now without incident. Not saying that there have not or will not be, as it is a very dynamic process depending on lithology and many other parameters. I'm just sick and tired of people immediately eating up one YouTube video on how hydraulic fracturing is destroying every persons water supply near a fractured well, which simply isn't true and couldn't be further from the truth.

    The UAE is sponsoring these types of things because they have a monopoly on the US market and we have been their largest consumer. Whenever something comes along that has the possibility of diminishing their profits, they will do whatever it takes to continue increasing their bottom line. This is just another piece of propaganda that the typical person will eat up and go tell all their friends, continuing to spread lies. Only because they're not interested enough in order to research the topic enough to fully understand it and would rather just base their opinions and facts off of one video which contains neither facts or useful information, but it does have Matt Damon so they'll believe every word.

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  4. I believe te faucets lighting on fire were caused by hooking a propane tank directly to the incoming water line for the house. Any legitimate issues with natural gas in drinking water probably has to die with their water well being drilled in to a coal bed or something like that.
    I work in the natural gas field with fairly shallow wells. The majority in my area are 2400 to 2600 feet deep. The water wells are about 400 feet deep. We haven't ever seen one issue with any problems coming from fracking. Honestly, I can't see any way that fracking could cause damage to drinking water.

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