Dear President Obama Page #3

to get over the use

of fossil fuels.

Excuse me, that analogy

just is inept.

So, if we suddenly have

an abundance of natural gas

where we can switch from burning

coal to burning natural gas

it'll be good

for the environment.

So, you get to have, uh, jobs

you get to have, uh,

more natural gas production

and you get to paint yourself

as an environmentalist

all at the same time.

How good can it get?

(Mark)

How good can it get?

For four months

starting in late 2015

a broken three inch gas pipe

located 8500 feet below ground

in suburban Los Angeles leaked

spewing an invisible

to the eye cloud of methane

into the air.

Thanks to special

infrared images calibrated

to show gas emissions

we can see just how bad it was.

Before it was finally plugged

the leak resulted

in five billion

cubic feet of methane

being released

into the atmosphere.

The equivalent

of the yearly emissions

from all of California's

oil refineries combined.

Pound for pound methane

over a 20 year time frame

is eighty to a hundred times

more powerful

than carbon dioxide

as a contributor

to the blanket of chemicals

in the atmosphere

helping to heat up the planet.

[dramatic music]

The leak at Porter Ranch

garnered international press

because of its magnitude.

But perhaps its most

powerful impact

was reminding us

just how much methane

leaks across the country

everyday

from every gas and oil field

delivery truck and train

pipeline, compressor station

and municipality.

[music continues]

To be clear,

you cannot drill for gas

without releasing methane.

[music continues]

According to the best

available analysis..

Available in the peer-reviewed

public literature..

The use of natural gas

as a substitute for coal

for electricity generation

only has a positive benefit

for climate change,

if the leak rate is less

than about 2.7 percent.

But we now know

that the national leak rate

is far higher than 2.7 percent

which means,

the dirtiest fossil fuel

right now, the one that's

accused of being the dirtiest

the one that

the Obama administration

literally is

trying to get off the table

with his proposed clean

power plant.

Coal...is better

than natural gas.

Natural gas is the dirtiest..

...from a climate change

point of view.

That's what the science

is saying right now.

[instrumental music]

Perhaps no one is as familiar

with the downsides

of fossil fuel extraction

than the residents

of West Virginia.

Coal is king here.

Recoverable beneath 43

of the states' 55 counties.

With the new coal production

restrictions put into place

by the Obama administration

in an effort

to reduce carbon dioxide

pumping into the atmosphere

West Virginia was

a perfect place to frack.

The cozy relationship between

the fossil fuel industry

and the state's politicians

extends further back

than the memory of

any current West Virginian

as does a ferocious cycle

of huge corporate profits

in a decimated environment

spun around by a labor force

desperate for jobs.

Lee Raymond was once

quoted the former CEO

of, uh, ExxonMobil.

He said that

presidents come and go.

Exxon is, is basically

like a, like a country.

[machine whirring]

(Jonathan)

I love these mountains.

One of the prettiest places

in the country

and I've been around

the world and back

and, uh, West Virginia

is a beautiful place.

But this...

equitable pump station

where my grandfather worked

is three times

the size it used to be.

It belongs to EQT now,

I believe.

And it's gettin' bigger..

...and it's gettin' noisier.

And that noise

probably won't go away.

And there's not a whole lot

you could do about it

because..

...I'm just a land owner.

Lot of things they do

in this state makes me mad.

Uh, the rape of Appalachia

ain't nothin' new.

If they just showed people

a little bit more respect..

...it could probably,

we could probably

swallow it a whole lot easier.

It's hard to think

of a scenario

where having a drilling rig

in your backyard

makes for good neighbors.

But that has long

been the reality

for many West Virginians.

Are you ready? Ready?

(Amy)

Most people who stay here

choose to be here

and choose to be poor

because this is the quality

of life they wanted.

They want a creek

in the backyard

they want a yard

for their kids to play in

they want woods,

they want a small community.

You don't have to have money

to have those kind of things.

But you do have to have money

apparently to protect them.

Uh, like, I woke up this morning

and looked out my window

and sat down

and cried for five minutes

'cause I knew this was coming.

I tried, I tried

talk to a lawyer

you gonna have

to pay for a lawyer.

I just, I..

You-you just can't do anything.

You just feel like

your hands are tied

and you can't do anything.

I mean, when they say

we shouldn't be angry

but I don't understand because

if you lose your quality of life

and you're afraid

that your water is contaminated

and you're afraid to grow

vegetables in your garden

and you've already went through

everything to eliminate

everything that could be bad

for your kids

and then...it, it..

E-everything's left

is still all the big issues.

Water, air, soil, schools

getting your kids back

and forth to schools.

It's not, i-in five years

it's went from almost heaven

to fracking hell.

That's what it has.

That's what it is.

That's what it is.

That's what it's become.

(Mark)

Rather than fair wages

stable employment

and a high quality of life

West Virginians instead

have witnessed

the industrialization

of their rural state.

Like other states' economies

depend on the process

of exhuming what nature

has buried deep underground

West Virginians

are among the unhealthiest

and the poorest in the nation.

Second only to Mississippi

for lowest income per capita.

This is your classic

resource extraction

third world

underdeveloped country model

being wrought on America.

Companies come in and say,

oh, sign on the dotted line

everything's gonna be fine.

Boom! You're done.

Your land is theirs,

they can come over

they takeover,

they toxify where you are

and then later, they

cancel your royalty payments

because they decided

to tax you on the pipeline

to transport your gas.

You can't trust these people.

They're trying to perpetuate

a system that doesn't

help the planet

that doesn't help

our environment.

It causes us...enormous amount

of problems in terms

of public health

and has also a huge hand

in taking the democracy

away from Americans.

We're not living in a democracy

at the current time

and the oil and gas industry

has a lot to do with that.

(male #1)

'We came from Saginaw,

Michigan.'

One day I was driving

on the road

and trying to find a job

and my grandpa called me

and said, uh,

"Why don't you come home?

North Dakota,

I've seen an ad on TV."

[indistinct singing]

So I called up all the boys

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