JLCNY’s Dan Fitzsimmons Discusses Shelly and the Importance of Truthland

Dan Fitzsimmons
President, Joint Landowners Coalition of New York

One day I answered a call from a filmmaker who was looking for a farmer who might want a closer look at the issues surrounding natural gas development. Other than an open mind and an inquisitive nature, the filmmaker didn’t give me many requirements for this person. Immediately, a childhood friend came to mind. Shelly is a mom and farmer and I’ve always known her to speak her mind and to tell the truth. I saw this journey as more important than Shelly’s trip. I saw it as a way to telegraph important information to thousands of landowners who also wanted to know the truth about natural gas development, but wouldn’t get the chance to go on a nationwide trek to do so. I knew Shelly would be the perfect messenger, because she had firsthand experience with a gas well on her property; a son who worked for the industry; and because she is originally from NY and wanted to help get the truth out about natural gas issues among people whose rights to develop their own land had been taken away.

As the president of the 70,000 member Joint Landowners Coalition, I am all too familiar with the misinformation spread by Gasland. In Truthland, various experts respond to those claims and separate fact from fiction on issues surrounding natural gas development and fracking, such as water, use of chemicals, methane migration, and whether livestock, crops and people are affected. Various experts point out how Gasland was misleading and led to erroneous conclusions in an artful and folksy way that encouraged believability.

Truthland - A Journey of Discovery by One Outstanding Woman

EID Special Correspondent
Publisher – Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

It was MDN’s pleasure to attend a screening of the newly released Truthland movie this week at the Susquehanna Valley High School in Conklin, New York. Truthland is a short film, about 34 minutes in length, that takes as its mission the debunking of Josh Fox’s well-known movie Gasland.

The star of Truthland is a Pennsylvania woman by the name of Shelly. She and her husband Phil and their children live on a farm in northeastern Pennsylvania—land that’s been in Phil’s family for the past 120 years. They leased their land for shale gas drilling several years ago, and then along came Gasland with wild claims that hydraulic fracturing is hugely dangerous. The movie raised red flags and questions for Shelly and sent her on a journey to find out the truth (or as it turns out, half- and un-truth) about Gasland. This movie (watch the trailer below) chronicles her quest to get her questions answered.

U.S. Takes the Gold in CO2 Reductions, Thanks to Shale

Julia Bell
Researcher, Energy In Depth

As the U.S. Olympic team gets set to compete against the best athletes from around the world in London later this month, there’s at least one event for which the U.S.A. appears to have already won the gold. According to a new report from the Paris-based International Energy Agency, the United States has had “the largest reduction [of emissions] of all countries or regions” since 2006, cutting GHGs by a staggering 7.7 percent.