Groan: L.A. Times film critic accepts as given that fracking is evil

Dec. 28, 2012

By Chris Reed

The question I posed in my Wednesday piece about fracking and California has already been answered. I wondered whether the fact that it has been “massively” used for decades but only began facing enviro complaints when it became efficient would ever be acknowledged by the state’s media.

L.A. Times film critic Kenneth Turan certainly can’t be bothered. In his Friday review of “Promised Land,” the new anti-fracking movie by shrill lefty Matt Damon, Turan accepts as a given that fracking is horrible:

“[The original wind-power plot] was shifted to what has become the hot-button ecological issue of the moment, the tumultuous practice of using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to extract underground natural gas. …  A town meeting is called to discuss Global’s offer to buy up everything, and … Frank Yates, a flinty science teacher played by Hal Holbrook, voices his objections to what fracking does to both land and water …. .”

The good news is that Turan gave a negative review to the movie. The bad news, the ridiculous news, is that he accepted without second thought its premise that fracking is evil.

The truth should set fracking free. It’s been used 1 million times to drill wells in the United States. To try to get this established as a basic talking point in this debate, I will repeat myself: It’s been around for decades. The NRDCs and Sierra Clubs of the world didn’t used to care. Now they care — because it’s much more efficient and only because it’s much more efficient.

Now here’s a pathetic/hilarious/amazing twist: Who’s financing this film? Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich emirate with a stake in blocking fracking.

Yo, Matt Damon: Who’s got the moral high ground here?

You?

Really?

Not!

Sheesh.