Things have gotten pretty tense in Dimockthese days. On a rainy day this week, more than one hundred people traveled from New York to support those residents along Carter Road who want Cabot Oil and Gas to continue fresh water deliveries.
Up until two weeks ago, Cabot had been supplying water to families who, according to the Department of Environmental Protection, had experienced high methane levels in their water wells due to mistakes the company made while drilling for natural gas. But DEP recently ruled Cabot had fulfilled its obligations, and could stop delivering water on December 1. The water contamination has become a national issue, and made Dimock a flashpoint in the battle over hydraulic fracturing.
The press conference took place under a tent, and provided ample opportunities to gather interviews with residents and their supporters who oppose natural gas drilling, such as a minister delivering a blessing, a feathered Chief with the Onandoga Nation, and celebrities like actor Mark Ruffalo. Ruffalo spoke passionately to the crowd, and posed like a pro when he caught himself within the sights of my camera.
After the press conference ended, I asked Ruffalo to answer a few questions. He eagerly jumped out of the tanker truck filled with water to talk to me. At first I threw him a softball — why is this important to you? Then I asked him to answer the most obvious criticism sure to be launched by pro-drillers, that an outsider, carpetbagger, Hollywood Liberal, comes to save the day. True, he lives in New York above the Marcellus Shale, but it’s easy for him to refuse a landman’s offer, he doesn’t need the bonus payments and royalties. But a lot of impoverished people in this area do.
I knew Ruffalo would play the Incredible Hulk in the upcoming Avengers movie. But I didn’t know the role would consume him so much that he would grow green muscles before my very eyes. That his eyes would pop.
“I’d say you don’t bring your daughter to the red light district just because times are tough,” replied Ruffalo. “You don’t build yourself a meth lab in your garage just because times are tough. This is poisoning people’s water, there’s absolutely no doubt about it.”
Ruffalo said he’s willing to catch flak for his activism. But he said there’s simply not enough scientific research to determine the long term impacts of gas drilling to public health and the environment. Then I asked him about the lack of alternative energy sources to meet our current needs. The shirt started to rip.
Jacobson wrote this cover piece in the November 2009 issue of Scientific American.
Ruffalo continued to speak, seemingly without taking a breath and moving closer to my microphone.
“What do we really pay for gas and oil? What does it really cost us? When you back out the subsidies, when you back out the wars, when you back out the remediation, when you back out the health effects? What does it really cost us for energy? And how can we say that those hidden costs don’t equal what we can do with solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro?”