Steelers Safety Troy Polamalu Stirs Controversy for Recommending Anti-Fracking Movie

While the Pittsburgh Steelers may still be nursing wounds from Sunday's upset by the Denver Bronco's, prominent Steelers safety Troy Polamalu is still stirring controversy for a film recommendation he made on Facebook back in December. The movie? "Gasland."

Gasland is a 2010 documentary film by Josh Fox covering the environmental hazards of natural gas drilling using hydraulic fracturing, a method that involves drilling into rock and injecting a high-pressure liquid to create channels for natural gas in reservoirs below to be harvested. Gasland features environmental concerns over fracking taking place in the Marcellus Shale under parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and West Virginia, and also speaks with homeowners affected by fracking in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Texas.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently released regulations for fracking under the Safe Water Act and will be releasing a study of fracking's effect on drinking water sometime in 2012 and also in 2014. Most recently, fracking has been blamed for causing a 4.0 magnitude earthquake in Youngstown, Ohio, on Dec. 31 and fingers have pointed to fracking as the cause of other earthquakes as well.

Here's Polamalu's Facebook post, which, as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette points out, started a lengthy comment debate:

Since Dec. 14, Polamalu's post has garnered 560 likes, 104 shares and more than 150 comments. Most comments are praise and thanks for Polamalu raising awareness of this issue, but the post is also peppered with criticism for the movie and misinformation about fracturing. Here is a snippet of the Facebook comments:

The Post-Gazette states that the film creator also praised Polamalu for his post on the film:

Mr. Fox was still quick to seize the moment, tweeting back to Mr. Polamalu, "THANKS! Let's save PA's water! Go Steelers!"

He also called the Steelers "#1 in Fracktivist Defense."

The industry, meanwhile, was quick to contest the film's accuracy without dissing its well-liked endorser. EnergyInDepth, a pro-industry lobbying firm, tweeted to Mr. Polamalu, saying it has "separated claims" from the facts in "Gasland" -- and, by the way, congratulations on his Pro Bowl selection.

Polamalu doesn't explicitly state his views on the movie or fracking, simply posting the trailer of Gasland without any comment of his own. Polamalu has also included films like "Waiting for Superman", "Food Inc" and "Vanishing of the Bees" as part of his regularly appearing Movie of the Week feature, according to the Post-Gazette.

Watch the trailer for Gasland: