Natural Gas Lobby and Gasland

The documentary Gasland, by James Fox, helps raise awareness on the issue of drilling for natural gas. Fox accomplishes this goal through his documentary by traveling to the people affected by the drilling, recording their newly acquired everyday troubles. This, however, is not the only way that Fox makes his documentary effective. Fox constantly emphasizes the fact that there are many reasons as to how the natural gas industry is able to continue drilling, even though it is evident that they are physically harming civilians near the rigs. The government, in an attempt to help the people for whom they work, passed certain regulations that would restrict corporations from harming the people. The natural gas (as well as oil) lobbies, however, have been able to influence the legislations, which would have otherwise damaged them.

In particular, the natural gas lobbyists have been very successful in influencing the politicians who draft up and vote on legislations. In February of 2009, natural gas companies responded to the growing public discomfort of their business practices by forming the American Natural Gas Alliance to “push broadly for more use of gas in power generation, transportation, and other fields.” By combining a vast amount of natural gas companies, their lobbying was able to become more united, and thus more effective. The lobbyists aim to emphasize the beneficial factors of drilling for natural gas, while giving very little attention to the main issues that the people have against them. A few of the mentioned benefits include the claims that “gas burns more cleanly than coal, is produced domestically, and relies on existing technology…” These claims not only work towards improving the image of natural gas, but also add a great amount of rhetoric that can be used politically. For example, with the ever-rising issue of energy dependence, it would be hard for a politician to argue against the claim that natural gas is domestically produced; whether or not the pros outweigh the cons, the natural gas industry does have a point, as the drilling would reduce foreign dependence.

Overall, the lobbying of the natural gas industry has been effective in their methods of influencing politics. It helps their cause that benefits of natural gas do exists, and since loopholes and exceptions that work in favor of natural gas drilling are already in place, the lobbyists do not need to concentrate on passing new legislation. Rather, I would think that they needed to work towards keeping the laws already existing in place. By uniting under the American Natural Gas Alliance, lobbyists have made it difficult for politicians to fix loopholes or change the laws already in place, even if it is what many people want.

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