"FrackNation" Part Two: The Koch Industries Ties That Bind

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Part one of the DeSmogBlog investigation of โ€œFrackNationโ€ โ€“ a film made in response to โ€œGasland 2โ€ โ€“ honed in on the past track records and funding streams of co-directors Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney.

We revealed that Donors Trust/Donors Capital โ€“ the โ€œdark money ATM of the rightโ€ โ€“ partially funded their first two films, โ€œMine Your Own Businessโ€ and โ€œNot Evil, Just Wrong.โ€

We also revealed that โ€œNot Evil,โ€ a climate change denial documentary, was utilized by a partner of Americans for Prosperity (AFP) to push the Balanced Education for Everyone (BEE) campaign.

That campaign calls for a โ€œbalancedโ€ scientific teaching of the climate change โ€œcontroversyโ€ and parallels ones pushed for via an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model bill, by the Discovery Institute, and by the Heartland Institute.

Yet, what about โ€œFrackNationโ€? Who bankrolled it and are the screenings and is the tour really a grassroots endeavor? 

It might seem that way based on its marketing, but as Jean de La Fontaine once said, โ€œBeware, so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance.โ€

Grassroots or Astroturf? Follow the Email List

Interested in where โ€œFrackNationโ€ and its film-making team are getting their funding from, I signed up for its email list. In so doing, I learned that Market Aces LLC runs it. 

โ€œFrom the start, Market Aces had a vision to offer low-cost website development solutions to small businesses and a niche market within the political and non-profit sector โ€“ but only those who are dedicated to protecting the American Dream and freedom,โ€ its website reads. 

Market Aces LLC shares an office with The Leadership Institute (LI). 

According to LIโ€˜s website, it โ€œteaches conservative Americans how to influence policy through direct participation, activism, and leadership.โ€ Its website also explains that โ€œsince 1979, [it] has trained more than 119,000 conservative activists, leaders, and students.โ€

Playing by APIโ€˜s Employee Advocacy Playbook?

Beyond getting email list building help from one of the key โ€œfeederโ€ nodes in the right-wing network, itโ€™s also questionable how many of the funders of โ€œFrackNationโ€ were of the grassroots variety. As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explained

[T]he roster of โ€œexecutive producersโ€ who have donated at least $1 includes scores of energy industry associates. The filmmakers said Thursday they plan to return any donations given by โ€œseniorโ€ workers in the industry, which they define as executives. 

Among those who donated money to the KickStarter campaign: โ€œthe director of an Ohio-based oil and gas outreach program and the head of external affairs at Cabot Oil and Gas, the company thatโ€™s fought accusations of water contamination in Dimock, Pa., for the past several years,โ€ according to the Post-Gazette.  

Within four weeks of the Kickstarter fundraising campaignโ€™s launch, โ€œFrackNationโ€ had already raised over $150,000, raising over $22,000 in the first two days of fundraising. 

Perhaps โ€œFrackNationโ€ is playing by the American Petroleum Instituteโ€˜s employee advocatesโ€™ โ€œcorporate citizenโ€ playbook.

In a presentation given at an industry PR conference attended by DeSmogBlog in Houston, TX titled, โ€œEducating Employees On Key Issues To Encourage Brand Management Energy Nation: Empowering Employee Advocates,โ€ APIโ€˜s Director of External Mobilization Tara Anderson explained how โ€“ in essence โ€“ to create an armada of fracking advocates from within the employee base of oil and gas corporations. 

โ€œEmployees are the best brand ambassador you can come byโ€ฆThe most important principle to remember is to create a culture of advocacy,โ€ she said in Houston. โ€œThis is really a community that regularly communicates and engages in the political process. It gives them all the necessary tools and empowers them to get involved and make a difference.โ€ 

This may explain why the film not only raised money with such rapidity, but also has full industry backing for its nationwide tour

โ€œFrackNationโ€ Tourโ€™s Americans for Prosperity Pitstops  

For an alleged grassroots-funded film, โ€œFrackNationโ€ has enjoyed robust support from Big Oil and other corporate interests in the first several months of its roadshow. Both Energy in Depth and the Marcellus Shale Coalition โ€“ for example โ€“ are also promoting the film.

โ€œThe film is a case of the good guys hitting a home run that changes the entire game,โ€ exclaimed Energy in Depth in a Jan. 2013 review of the film

Former Big Tobacco lackey Grover Norquist โ€“ now head of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)  โ€“ also wrote a favorable review of the film to coincide with the filmโ€™s premiere on the Mark Cuban-owned AXS TV in Jan. 2013 and ATRโ€˜s hosting of the filmmakerโ€™s for lunch.

Ezra Lavant of โ€œEthical Oilโ€ infamy has also aided in promoting the film. โ€œFrackNationโ€ co-director Magdalena Segieda will speak on Levantโ€™s โ€œFreedom Cruiseโ€ in August and he also had McElhinney and McAleer on his show in February.  

In Feb. 2013, Joint Landownerโ€™s Coalition of NY Inc. (JLCNYhosted two โ€œFrackNationโ€ screenings in upstate New York, both of which McAleer attended. Just three months later in May, JLCNY announced its new partnership with AFP

Later, in March, AFP-Michigan played host to a โ€œFrackNationโ€ screening, a fracking battleground state where the toxic process has yet to commence. In April and MayAFPโ€“Illinois hosted a total of eight screenings of โ€œFrackNation,โ€ another state with an ongoing fracking battleAFPโ€“MT and the Montana Petroleum Association โ€“ a state-level API โ€“ also screened the film

Most recently to coincide with the launch of the grassroots launch of โ€œGasland 2,โ€ McAleer has taken โ€œFrackNationโ€ on-tour to bird-dog it.

On May 22, AFP-Colorado hosted a โ€œFrackNationโ€ screening at the same time University of Colorado hosted a showing of โ€œGasland 2,โ€ and the next โ€œshowdown of the centuryโ€ โ€“ as the โ€œFrackNationโ€ promoters put it โ€“ will take place on May 31 in Santa Barbara, CAYoung Americaโ€™s Foundation will play host to the โ€œFrackNationโ€ Santa Barbara screening.  

AFP-Maryland also hosted a screening of โ€œFrackNationโ€ on June 2.  

โ€œFrackNationโ€ Screens at House Committee, Josh Fox Arrested in Hearing of Same Committee

โ€œFrackNationโ€ also screened at CPAC in March 2013 and in front of the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology in Feb. 2013.   

โ€œItโ€™s important that politicians educate themselves about fracking. Itโ€™s the future of American energy,โ€ McAleer wrote in an email promoting the Capitol Hill screening. โ€œWith all the lies and misinformation out there, weโ€™re excited to bring the truth about fracking to Capitol Hill.โ€ 

Dave Weigel of Slate reported that โ€œaround 40 Republican staffers and members of Congress made time for a private movie screening.โ€

Among those in the room, according to Weigel, was Committee Chair U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), a climate change denier who took $10,000 from Koch Industries and $83,750 from Big Oil for his 2012 electoral campaign.  

โ€œHe was glad to have these points made in an easily digestible way, on screen,โ€ McAleer told Weigel of Smithโ€™s reaction to seeing the film. โ€œPeople know thereโ€™s something smelly about Gasland, but people are suspicious about how it smells.โ€

As a direct juxtaposition, โ€œGasland 2โ€ director Josh Fox was arrested at this same Committeeโ€™s hearing in Feb. 2012 while filming for his then-upcoming film for โ€œunlawful entry.โ€ Though he had a pass to do the filming during the hearing, he was was slapped with this charge anyway.

โ€œThis is a public hearing. Iโ€™m within my First Amendment rights, and Iโ€™m being taken out,โ€ Fox calmly stated to those in the hearing room while being escorted out during his arrest. 

Independent Journalists? Oh, Really?

Then thereโ€™s the big question: how do two so-called independent journalists afford to pay for a $1 million condo off the Pacific Ocean in Marina Del Rey, CA?

This condo was purchased by them in May 2010, according to property records matching the listed address for Hard Boiled Films LLC, the listed producer of โ€œFrackNation.โ€

   

And though itโ€™s obvious from the filmmakerโ€™s track-records that they have ties to powerful right-wing upper-level circles, sources told DeSmogBlog that McAleer interviewed them under deceptive pretenses. 

McAleerโ€™s Interview Requests Under Misleading Pretenses

One of the featured interviewees in the film is Dimock, PAโ€˜s Craig Sautner alongside his wife, Julie. The Sautners were interviewed for the first โ€œGaslandโ€ and had their water contaminated by Cabot Oil and Gas in 2008.

โ€œTrees were cleared and the ground leveled to make room for a four-acre drilling site less than 1,000 feet away from their land,โ€ an account in Vanity Fair explained. โ€œThe Sautners could feel the earth beneath their home shake whenever the well was fracked. Within a month, their water had turned brown. It was so corrosive that it scarred dishes in their dishwasher and stained their laundry.โ€

In an interview with DeSmogBlog, Sautner said McAleer approached him under misleading pretenses, claiming to be an anti-fracking filmmaker hoping to help out in Irelandโ€™s fracking fight

โ€œI was hesitant at first to do the interview, but he begged us and we said โ€˜okay.โ€™ Everything he ended up using in the video he took out of context. He had it all set up from the beggining of what he wanted to show and he wasnโ€™t going to show the truth,โ€ Sautner told DeSmogBlog.

Victoria Switzer, another Dimock victim of Cabot interviewed for โ€œFrackNationโ€ who spent four hours speaking with McAleer in her house (her interview did not appear in the film), also expressed similar sentiments to DeSmogBlog.  

He called he assured me he was doing an unbiased documentary both sides of the issues. I think it is significant because it goes to his lying, his manipulation of the truth, and misrepresentation of his agenda. I never would have let him in my home if I knew what his agenda was. Later when I saw some of his other work I was sickened that this man sat at the table my husband built in the home that is now threatened by the industry he serves

McAleer mislead interviewees during the filming of โ€œMine Your Own Business,โ€ too. Stephanie Roth โ€“ a 2005 recipient of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize and a grassroots activist who has helped in the anti-mining fight in Romania โ€“ was also approached by McAleer for an interview for that film.

The catch: he did so โ€“ according to one account โ€“ under a psudonym and Roth refused to speak to him because McAleer was uninterested in interviewing any of the local grassroots activists she suggested should be interviewed besides her.

Big Tobacco Player, Climate Changer Deniers Makes Film Apperances

โ€œFrackNationโ€ itself features numerous fossil fuel industry shills-for-hire, climate change deniers, as well as one former Big Tobacco apologist, all posing as โ€œindependent experts.โ€ The roster of hired guns is robust: 

โ€“Bruce Ames โ€“ Ames sits on the Advisory Board of Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), a climate change denial, fossil fuel industry-funded group on college campuses nationwide. He also formerly sat on the Advisory Board for The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), created by Philip Morris, as explained in the book โ€œTrust Us Weโ€™re Expertsโ€ by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber.

In the film, Ames compares the chemical compounds found in fracking fluid to those found in cabbage.

โ€œIf I gave you all of the long names of the chemicals in cabbage that give cancer to rats in high levels, you could get scared, but thereโ€™s really no danger in cabbage,โ€ he stated in the film. โ€œIf people say frackingโ€™s causing cancer, then they donโ€™t know what theyโ€™re talking about.โ€ 

โ€“Robert Bryce โ€“ Bryceโ€™s analysis was also featured early-on in the film, though his fellowship at the Manhattan Institute Center for Energy Policy and the Environment โ€“ heavily funded by the oil and gas industry โ€“ goes unmentioned. Bryce was also interviewed extensively in the industry propaganda film, โ€œHaynseville.โ€ 

โ€“James Delingpole โ€“ Delingpole is an infamous climate change denier and columnist for the UK Telegraph. In the film, Delingpole hints that the U.S. anti-fracking movement might be funded by Russia for geopolitical purposes. 

โ€œIn fact, I would say Russia is screwed if it canโ€™t export its gas,โ€ Delingpole said in the film. โ€œSo, it really is very important for Russia that the shale gas revolution does not happen. It is also in Russiaโ€™s interest to fund those environmental groups which are committed to campaigning against fracking. Thatโ€™s how it works.โ€

โ€“Terry Engelder โ€“ Engelder is viewed by many as a shale gas industry spokesman. He is the co-founder of Appalachian Fracture Systems, a natural gas consulting firm and was interviewed in โ€œTruthland,โ€ a documentary made in response to โ€œGaslandโ€ by Energy In Depth

โ€“Jon Entine โ€“ Entine is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, which The Guardian revealed takes millions to deny climate change from, among others, ExxonMobil. He also has a fellowship at George Mason University, heavily funded by the Koch Brothers.

Mother Jones referred to Entine as an โ€œagribusiness apologistโ€ in a Feb. 2012 piece pointing to some his unsavory advocacy on behalf of multnational agribusiness corporation, Syngenta.   

โ€“Bryan Shaw โ€“ Shaw serves as head of the Texas Center for Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Heโ€™s also a notorious climate changer denier whose fellow climate change denying boss โ€“ TX Republican Gov. Rick Perry โ€“ took $5,204,795 from Big Oil before his 2010 electoral victory. Perry has already raised $671,069 in advance of his forthcoming 2014 electoral efforts.  

โ€œMerchants of Doubtโ€ At It Again

McAleer can best be described as a favorite corporate third-party advocate, a hired gun to sow seeds of doubt on the ecological impacts of fracking. 

โ€œ[Third party advocacy] offers camouflage, helping to hide the vested interest that lurks behind a message,โ€ wrote Rampton and Stauber in โ€œTrust Us Weโ€™re Experts.โ€ โ€œPutting the same message in someone elseโ€™s mouth gives it a credibility that it would not otherwise enjoy.โ€

Thus, while many critics write McAleer off as a convoluted goof ball, thereโ€™s more to the story than originally meets the eye: itโ€™s the story of the Tobacco Playbookโ€™s redux and the stakes of the climate crisis couldnโ€™t be higher

In Dec. 1953, PR hegemon Hill and Knowlton formed the Tobacco Industry Committee for Public Information, also forming the Tobacco Institute in 1963. The U.S. Dept. of Justice would later say that โ€œdeceive[d] the American public about the health impacts of smoking.โ€

60 years later, more of the same. Hill and Knowlton now represents Americaโ€™s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA), the unconventional oil and gas industryโ€™s lobbying tour de force. 

With influential news outlets ranging from The New York TimesVarietyNew York PostNational Review, and the Associated Press all covering the film favorably, whoever is bank-rolling โ€œFrackNationโ€ understands how the dark arts of PR are utilized. That is, when โ€œboth sidesโ€ of a one-sided scientific debate are covered in a news story, the โ€œmerchants of doubtโ€ always wins. 

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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