The new villain, same as the old villain, but with a twist.
TNT continued the Hollywood practice of condemning oil and gas in its June 12 episode of “Rizzoli & Isles.” The plot featured an ex-Blackwater agent, masquerading as a yoga guru, who kills a vegan student and a professor in order to hide his drilling for natural gas from shale. This episode was a triple decker for left-wing stereotypes.
The professor that was murdered had condemned hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, in a video saying, “fracking is an invasive way to extract natural gas. Proponents say it will liberate the U.S. from dependence on foreign oil. But, my research indicates it will destroy the environment.”
One of the two main characters, medical examiner Dr. Isles reinforces that idea later in the episode saying, “they pump hundreds of chemicals thousands of feet underground. It pollutes groundwater.” Even the villain ominously tells Detective Rizzoli and Dr. Isles (after tying them in their car, which is parked on a spillway) saying, “a few million gallons of water’s gonna come pouring through here. It’s pretty toxic, from all the fracking.”
The clear anti-fracking statements throughout the show are not new for Hollywood, and they leave out important facts. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin recently concluded that “there is no evidence” of polluted drinking water caused by fracking. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson even told the Ithaca Journal, “We have absolutely no indication now that drinking water is at risk.”
The liberal news media, which has been anti-oil industry for years, has also portrayed fracking for natural gas in a negative light. The New York Times even had to print a correction in May 2011 after it overstated criticism of the practice. They were forced to admit “There are few documented cases [of water pollution], not numerous ones.”
The American Petroleum Institute has written that fracking fluid is made up of about 90 percent water, 9.5 percent sand. According to the director of the Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Kathleen Hartnett White, only 0.5 percent “is a mix, not of ‘596 chemicals’ but of just a few, such as guar gum, and emulsifier commonly used in ice cream. And remember: these chemicals are diluted in millions of gallons of water.”
