Gasland Shows How Fracking for Methane Threatens Water Supplies

In your standard summer flick, orange fireballs shoot out of a giant robot—not a kitchen faucet. But in the documentary Gasland (premiering on HBO in June), filmmaker Josh Fox reveals how a hydraulic-extraction process called fracking—using high-pressure hoses to blast methane from fractures in the earth—is a threat to the nation's water supply. In one Colorado town, the wells are so contaminated that a flick of a Bic sets tap water ablaze. Which means natural gas companies' claims about "clean energy" might just be a lot of hot air.