In 2010, the movie Gasland emerged as a hit piece against the fracking industry, an important industry to Colorado’s economy.  Next month, Matt Damon, clueless about the United Arab Emirates’ sovereign wealth fund that bankrolled his movie, will star in The Promised Land, yet another attempt to bury the industry.  Now, three investigative journalists have made a documentary about fracking to refute some of the claims levied by Gasland‘s “expert” (or notsomuch) director Josh Fox and as a response to The Promised Land called FrackNation.

While the documentary has been discussed for over a year now, this week AXS TV (that’s pronounced “access”), owned by Mark Cuban, Ryan Seacrest, and Creative Artists Agency (Hollywood talent agency), among others snagged the rights to FrackNation.  The film is slated to air on January 22, 2013 at 9:00 p.m. ET on AXS TV, which, in Denver, is channel 340 on DIRECTV, channel 664 on Comcast, and channel 362 on DISH.

Phelim McAleer, the filmmaker behind the Cuban-dubbed OpEdocumentary, explained the rationale behind the movie:

“We are going to be pushing back against what is going to be a Hollywood-HBO onslaught against fracking.  We want to get a bit of balance in the debate — give a voice to farmers and rural poor whose voices are never heard above urban elites and Hollywood celebrities.We have a section showing how, once the celebrities got involved, the people who depended on and supported fracking didn’t stand a chance.”

McAleer has made a name for himself confronting Hollywood about the scientific basis (or lackthereof) of its rabid environmentalism. In the clip below, McAleer confronts Gasland’s Fox about the reports that the Weld County families with flammable water featured in Gasland had water naturally containing methane prior to local fracking activities.

If this is a taste of what’s to come in FrackNation, we’re excited.  We just have one request – we’re still waiting for our journalists’ advance copy of the documentary.  It’s on our list for Santa – we’ve not been too naughty this year.  Ryan Seacrest, don’t let us down.