Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition presents the local premier of the film, SPLIT ESTATE: What you don’t know about natural gas production can hurt you. Discussion to follow.

7pm Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Lost Dog Café Violet Room
222 Water Street, Binghamton, NY

It sounds like a nightmare from the Twilight Zone. Picture this. Imagine discovering that you don’t own the mineral rights under your land, and that an energy company plans to drill for natural gas two hundred feet from your front door. Imagine having little recourse, other than accepting an unregulated industry in your backyard. Split Estate (2009, 76min) maps a tragedy in the making, as citizens in the path of a new drilling boom in the Rocky Mountain West struggle against the erosion of their civil liberties, their communities and their health.”

Ordinary homeowners and ranchers absorb the cost. Actually, we all pay the price in this devastating clash of interests that extends well beyond the Rockies. Aggressively seeking new leases in as many as 32 states, the industry is even making a bid to drill in the New York City watershed, which provides drinking water to millions, and throughout upstate New York and Pennsylvania. As public health concerns mount, Split Estate cracks the sugarcoating on an industry touted as a clean alternative to fossil fuels, and poignantly drives home the need for real alternatives.

This series, which runs for five Tuesdays this fall, features films and discussions on how we can work together to create a more sustainable region. The next screenings in the series are on October 27, November 10 and December 8. This series is organized by Binghamton University Environmental Studies students of “Sustainability and Social Movements” in partnership with the Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition.

For more information contact Gabriel Piser, Adjunct Lecturer, Environment Studies, Latin American Studies, Binghamton University, at gabrielpiser@gmail.com

Coordinating Committee: Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition. Press contact: flint@igc.org, 607-761-8337