When the documentary film "Gasland" was nominated for an Academy Award, it was bound to stir controversy in Pennsylvania. The state struggles with a $4 billion budget deficit, crumbling infrastructure, ancient gas pipeline explosions and 9 percent unemployment.
Taxation of the Marcellus natural gas drilling is still a political issue which has yet to be sorted out. Luckily, new Republican Gov. Tom Corbett hasn't uttered those too often heard words: "The mess we inherited."
The issue of how much to tax the industry perplexed departing Gov. Ed Rendell and remained unresolved when he left office. Republicans and Democrats favored a tax but were widely apart on the amount of such a tax.
Opinion among Democrats was generally that it should be "taxed to death" as some Republicans would describe it. In that case, drillers would likely move to other locations in the band of states that comprise the Marcellus Shale deposits. The Marcellus Shale rock shelf extends from parts of New York state, down through Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
"Gasland" is destined to become the filmic version of a battle flag for enviro-radicals. The comments section of a news article about the film documentary urges people to get involved in the fight against natural gas drilling companies.
"Kelly Zimmerman" implies that pro-drilling advocates are transmitting computer viruses to those "involved in the natural gas drilling fight." The right course of action is to "pull an Egypt on them and get a million people to march."
At the same time, it's impossible to find anyone in the industry who is not concerned that drilling operations should be conducted in an environmentally friendly manner. All human activity has an impact on the environment, from housing septic systems to the installation of electrical lines.
It is the rare environmental activist who does not use electricity or carbon fuel energies. Indeed, noted environmental activists like former Vice President Al Gore are often criticized for large, energy consuming mansions and private planes.
Industry operators and state officials are accountable for any damage caused by drilling. But the science of drilling is much improved compared to when "fracking" began in the middle of the last century.
"Fracking" is the slang term used for the technique of forcing fluids and air into drilled holes so as to fracture the shale rock containing natural gas.
The "Gasland" documentary is one of the latest in a spate of films actively editorializing for a left-liberal point of view. Documentary filmmakers of earlier periods were often frustrated in their quest for "objectivity." Many modern filmmakers have entirely abandoned objectivity and routinely combine political activism with filmmaking, in the manner of Cuban socialist films of the 1960s.
Michael Moore is likely the best known documentary filmmaker in the modern genre which is saturated with opinion. "Gasland" invites comparison with Michael Moore's anti-gun documentary "Bowling for Columbine," and with Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."
"Gasland" competes with the other four nominated films in the "Documentary Feature" category:
Restrepo: Named after a battle casualty in the Afghan war, the film tracks the lives of young war fighters on the battlefield.
Exit Through the Gift Shop: a fanciful, partly true documentary on the life of a British street artist named "Banksy."
Inside Job: a look into the fast-paced world of Wall Street and the role "creativity" played in the world financial collapse.
Waste Land: Brazilian trash artist Vik Muniz highlights people who scrape a living from items discarded at a garbage dump.
For more Oscars buzz, go to Oscars.yahoo.com
Anthony Ventre is a freelance writer who has written for several weekly and daily newspapers, for Demand Studios, and for AOL. He lives in Stroudsburg, Pa., and writes about topics impacting the tri-state area.
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