With the recent release of the new Matt Damon movie, Promised Land, conversations have again turned towards the natural gas industry and to residents leasing their mineral rights to gas companies.
The movie paints a picture of a small town whose residents have just been approached to lease to a large company – starring Matt Damon as the company’s landman. But how accurate of a representation is it?
WNEP, a television news station out of Scranton/Wilkes Barre area, headed north to Susquehanna County and specifically to Dimock and the infamous Carter Road, to speak with residents about their own experiences with the natural gas industry. Overall, residents expressed that the concerns played out in Promised Land are grossly overstated. WNEP also reminds viewers that despite water quality concerns in the Dimock area, the EPA has stated that the water is safe.
In the words of Dimock resident, Nicholas Degrote, “I think before Hollywood makes any kind of movie, Hollywood should come up here and experience it.”
