Soros-Backed Documentaries Criticizing North Dakota Oil Boom Screened In Washington DC
A Washington DC-area friend and reader sent along the email invite below to a screening of “A Boom With No Boundaries” and “Backyard,” both documentaries critical of the North Dakota oil boom (the first one) and hydraulic fracturing in general (the second one).
The group sponsoring the event is the Center for American Progress, a left-wing, George Soros-backed “think tank” that is anything but supportive of fossil fuel energy development.
What always strikes me as interesting is how these sort of efforts are rarely targeted at the people who are actually living in or near the oil fields. This film isn’t being screened in North Dakota. It’s being screened in far-off Washington DC where the enemies of fossil fuel development hope to convince a majority to shut oil booms like the Bakken down. You’ll notice, too, that the panel discussion that goes along with the film features the filmmakers, but nobody from North Dakota or Montana, etc.
If they truly wanted a well-rounded discussion, they’d invite some state legislators, regulators or citizens to talk about the oil boom. Of course, then they might get some inconvenient truths.
For what it’s worth, recent polling conducted in North Dakota indicates that the people who actually live here are fine with the oil boom. A poll by the Brigther Future Alliance found 83 percent of North Dakotans feel the state is on the right track, and another poll sponsored by the North Dakota Petroleum Council found that 83 percent favor oil development in the state (including 80 percent in the oil patch).
Which is why these sort of documentaries are screened in Washington DC for left-wing, anti-oil audiences and not in North Dakota.
You can watch the trailer for “A Boom With No Boundaries” here.
“A Boom with No Boundaries” and “Backyard”Pizza will be served at 6:00 p.m.Center for American Progress
1333 H Street NWPlease join the Center for American Progress’ Reel Progress film series and the DC Environmental Film Festival for the DC premiere of the films A Boom with No Boundaries andBackyard.The Bakken oil boom in North Dakota has brought much-needed jobs and economic development to the region. But the fast pace of the drilling has caused many problems, including industrial-scale impacts on Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the land surrounding it. Produced byAndrew Satter and Jessica Goad, A Boom with No Boundaries explores how one of America’s national parks is being affected by the pollution, traffic, and noise associated with oil and gas drilling.Energy companies pursue increasingly difficult methods of fossil fuel extraction at increasing costs to the people and the environment. Directed and produced by Deia Schlosberg, Backyard examines four states — North Dakota, Montana, Pennsylvania and Colorado – that are presently in different stages of hydro-fracking development. The results are several powerful stories of people at odds with the natural gas extraction occurring around them.A panel discussion and audience Q&A will follow the films.Introductory remarks:
Matt Lee-Ashley, Senior Fellow, Center for American ProgressPanelists:
Maite Arce, CEO, Hispanic Access Foundation
Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Natural Resources Defense Council
Kate Wofford, Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley NetworkModerator:Erika Bolstad, journalist, McClatchy Newspapers
