Susan Jordan California Coastal Advocate

Matt Damon Promised Land Movie Review

We attended the advanced screening of the Promised Land movie on Tuesday, December 11 in Hollywood and here is our review.

Promised Land is one of the most informative & entertaining movies about real life and local economics in the United States today.  Just when you think you understand all of the characters in the movie there is a big twist to the story at the end.  The twist to the story at the end of the movie will make you question every source and quote you hear in the media and from City Council promoting oil and gas revenue benefits and jobs.

Here are some oxymoron examples our City Council is currently using in Hermosa Beach "environmentally safe oil drilling" and "carbon neutral".   These hypocritical marketing buzz words should make you question the agenda of City Council and why they are unwilling to hold a public debate on the oil drilling issue.  

The movie also shows you how divisive money and oil can be on a community.  It tears apart a small town that lacks intelligent political leadership and shows you the hidden corruption oil companies use to influence politicians.  Just like Hermosa Beach, there are hardly any educated people doing research or who understand the risks of doing oil drilling so close to homes.  In the movie a professor eloquently presents the risk factors of drilling to an audience at a public debate and turns the tide the oil drilling project.

The movie also shows you that our politicians have their priorities in the wrong place and should be thinking about our health and safety first before creating jobs.  Not surprising a politician is willing to say anything for some cash presented and favors.

It makes you wonder why the Hermosa Beach City Council is under a confidentiality agreement (page 4) and never presented the settlement agreement in a public forum for debate.  Sounds pretty corrupt and suspicious to me.  

Some critic lobbying groups have tried to discredit the movie by saying Middle East OPEC money has financed the movie  . . .

After all, the movie "is financed in part" by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), an OPEC member country.   

This is a stupid argument since 47% of the 27,000 fracked wells in the United States were for oil and 53% were for gas.  Fracking is not just about gas.  See DrillingMaps.com database for more details on fracking locations in US.

Please like Promised Land movie on Facebook.

Here is the the Promised Land Movie Trailer. 

Here is some ridiculous propaganda trying to taint the movie claiming a conspiracy about Middle East oil money is behind the movie exposed fracking to promote oil.  Excuse me . . . but there minority investments of Middle East oil money in just about every company in the United States and these claims are ridiculous   For Matt Damon to claim he didn't know where some of the money came from is completely legitimate.  

Josh Fox of Gasland discusses his view on the film about the oil and gas industry taking away and exploiting what we have work so hard to build.

Fracking in California Can Induce More Earthquakes

Josh Fox of Gas Land Movie reveals unregulated fracking going on in Los Angeles, California and could cause a major earthquakes in the near future.  The USGS is studying the relationship to fracking but regulation still seems a long ways off.  Oil and gas companies are not required to disclose fracking even though hundreds of wells in Southern Califoria have and are currently being fracked.

In Oklahoma , Arkansas, and in Ohio, earthquakes shake the ground and rattle nerves. But these quakes are not the work of mother nature. The USGS says a controversial oil production method called "fracking" is responsible for triggering them

Fracking is a drilling method where highly pressurized water, sand, and a cocktail of chemicals are injected miles into the ground to shatter the rock, which allows the oil and gas to escape. A critical part of this process is getting rid of millions of gallons of waste water. A common way to do that is to re-inject it back into the earth. And that's what can trigger an earthquake. E&B will tell you they are not doing the controversial "hydraulic fracking" but won't be specific on how their technique differs from the above.  Do we want to take this risk?  

Oil Companies Do NOT have to Disclose Fracking Sites in CA

Fracking is Still Highly Unregulated in California
See the Fracking Health Dangers of Gas Here


Baldwin Hills Oil Sink Hole in 1963 See (6 min 25 seconds)
Pressurized Oil Extraction Wells Caused This

Hydraulic Fracking Diagram

California Fracking Unregulated

E&B Oil Reveals Hydraulic Pumping Will Be Used

E&B further explains their hydraulic fracking technique using 27 oil wells and 3 water injection wells. The drilling rig will be 87 feet tall and will be temporarily on site for four months before it is removed. During that four month period three exploratory wells and one water injection well will be drilled. This will allow us to analyze the quality, along with the rate and flow, and other important factors of the produced oil, gas and water.

Pressurized Hydraulic Oil Extraction Wells Caused This
Redondo Beach Wins $2.5M Law Suit From Oil Companies in 1997

Eight oil companies named in the lawsuit were required to replace the oil they had taken with pressurized water. He said that because they did not, the surface under the water sank up to four feet in some areas. The subsidence led the breakwater to sink four feet below its designed height of 22 feet, Goddard said, and caused storm-generated waves to crash over the protective wall. He said the storm caused more than $8 million in damage to local businesses, a cost absorbed by the city. Several major oil companies were named in the suit, including Texaco, Exxon, Trident and Phillips Petroleum, Goddard said.