Above Photo:Â “In California, the burgeoning movement to shut the two remaining nukes at Diablo Canyon has run parallel with the powerful grassroots opposition to fracking,” Wasserman says. (Photo: Mary Crandall/flickr/cc)
Documentarian and anti-fracking pioneer Josh Fox was arrested last week in Washington, D.C. while doing two of the things he does best: Protesting fracking and filming the entire thing. Fox was on hand to protest the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for its role in continuing to permit fossil fuel projects that will greatly accelerate climate change. More specifically, Fox and a group of like-minded individuals were protesting FERC’s role in using eminent domain to condemn and clear-cut a wide swath of maple trees across the Holleran family maple syrup farm in New Milford, Pennsylvania in order to make room for the Constitution pipeline (which has still not been formally approved by New York state).
Fox and his cohorts took their complaints directly to the commission and put a clever spin on their protest, branding it as “Pancakes Not Pipelines,” and setting up camp in front of the FERC office, where they cooked pancakes (using a solar-powered griddle) and topped them with maple syrup from the Hollerans’ devastated farm. Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, Fox and others (including Megan Holleran) were arrested for “blocking passage” during the course of their demonstration.
It’s hardly the first time Fox has been arrested while protesting and working. Back in 2012, he was arrested on Capitol Hill while filming “Gasland.”
Of his experience, Fox said, “Everyone I know is fighting a pipeline or a compressor station or a power plant that is in front of FERC for approval. It is clear to me that FERC has to be the most destructive agency in the United States right now. They are faceless, nameless, unelected and ignore citizen input. I think of FERC as the Phantom Menace. The agency’s commissioners have been rubber stamping fracking infrastructure all over country that threatens local communities and the planet by accelerating climate change.”
Fox is out of jail now, and it should come as little surprise that he’s turned his experience into a film, a brand new short titled “The Last Drop” (another clever take on the problem, as the syrup used on the pancakes was billed as being “the last drop” of the Holleran family’s business) that follows the Holleran family’s unbelievable experiences with FERC and the proposed pipeline, all leading up to the group’s recent arrest. Indiewire is very proud to exclusively debut the new film here.
Fox’s latest feature, “How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change,” will open on April 20, followed by an HBO debut in June.
Watch “The Last Drop” above.