The former mayor of Dish, Texas – whose small town was included in the controversial anti-fracking documentary “Gasland” – is at the Legislative Building Tuesday meeting with lawmakers to warn them about what he says are the negative consequences of hydraulic fracturing for underground gas deposits.
Calvin Tillman is showing legislators photographs of homes and a playground with drilling and processing facilities looming large in the background. He also brought an aerial photo of the town extensively sprinkled with little white dots, which he identifies as drilling sites.
Tillman reports legislators have been receptive, especially those concerned with local control. Tillman has become an anti-fracking advocate, visiting policymakers across the country.
“Fifteen years from now someone from North Carolina will be showing photographs in New Mexico or someplace if this bill passes,” Tillman told Dome.
He was brought to town by the N.C. Conservation Network and the Southern Environmental Law Center.
“Gaslands” was nominated for an Academy Award, but the energy industry and others have crtiticized it as one-sided and inaccurate.
The House Environment Committee on Wednesday will consider the fracking bill that the Senate approved last week. It would lay the groundwork for fracking to begin in North Carolina in a few years, after a regulatory infrastructure was created.
