[env-trinity] Article Submission: Voters approve fracking bans in San Benito and Mendocino Counties

[Dan Bacher]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/05/1342317/-Voters-approve-fracking-bans-in-San-Benito-and-Mendocino-Counties

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/11/05/18763838.php



Voters approve fracking bans in San Benito and Mendocino Counties

by Dan Bacher

In election victories for the environment and public health, voters in  
San Benito County and Mendocino Counties on November 4 approved ballot  
measures that will ban fracking and other extreme oil-extraction  
techniques.

Measure J in San Benito County passed with 57% of the vote, while  
Measure S in Mendocino County passed with 67%.

The victory in the San Benito was achieved despite a massive ad  
campaign funded by the oil industry, the state's largest and most  
powerful corporate lobby. Anti-fracking measures also passed in  
Denton, Texas, and Athens, Ohio, according to the Center for  
Biological Diversity.

“The oil industry’s millions were no match for San Benito County  
voters determined to protect their air and water from fracking  
pollution,” said Hollin Kretzmann of the Center for Biological  
Diversity. “But every California community deserves the same  
protection, so Gov. Brown needs to act now to halt fracking’s toxic  
threat to our health and environment.”

However, Measure P in Santa Barbara County, an initiative very similar  
to the San Benito measure, lost after oil industry groups spent more  
than $7.6 million to beat the measure placed on the ballot by local  
grassroots groups, according to Sierra Club California.

That spending ranked the local ballot measure campaign in Santa  
Barbara as one of the most expensive in the country. "The oil  
industry’s campaign relied heavily on advertising that misled voters  
about the measure’s content, and outspent proponents by more than 20  
to 1," the Club stated.

Kathryn Phillips, Director of Sierra Club California, said in response  
to the Measure P loss:

“Winning two out of three county fracking ban measures on the ballot  
in California is great news for every Californian who wants clean air,  
clean water and a safe future for the next generation.

We knew the oil industry would spend a lot this election. It has given  
every indication that it is determined to continue business as usual,  
and is unwilling to change its polluting practices, even as the rest  
of the world faces the extremes of climate disruption caused by  
continued oil dependence. And as we have seen by recent shutdown  
orders of injection wells used to dispose of fracking fluid in  
California, the oil industry is unable to conduct fracking without  
polluting.

History is on our side. Sierra Club members are inspired by the voters  
of San Benito County and Mendocino County, and the good citizens in  
Santa Barbara County who have shown such strong commitment to social  
and environmental progress. Fracking will end in California. This  
election shows that, in the absence of a statewide moratorium,  
Californians are prepared to force that end in their own communities.”

In contrast to Phillips' statement, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President  
of the Western States Petroleum Association, the lead trade  
association for the oil companies and the most powerful corporate  
lobbying group in California, lauded the "volunteers" of the No on  
Measure P campaign for their successful efforts in a tweet to her  
supporters:

“Congrats to the @NoOnMeasureP team & all the volunteers who helped  
make today reality! Glad Santa Barbara got it right on science & facts!”

The election cycle was marked by extraordinary spending to influence  
elections in California by the oil industry. The Sierra Club said oil  
interests ran independent expenditure campaigns against at least two  
Southern California assembly members and one Bay Area candidate for  
the state senate.

Oil companies also gained national attention for their efforts to  
influence city council elections in Richmond, California, spending  
more than $3 million on that local election. Oil companies also spent  
nearly $2 million to unsuccessfully challenge the fracking ban measure  
in San Benito County.

Just days before the election, seventh quarter lobbying filings for  
the two-year legislative session were released. They showed that the  
Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) spent $4,009,177.87 in  
three months to influence legislators during the period including  
July, August and September this year, the last three active months of  
the legislative session. That compares to $1.7 million the group spent  
during the 6th quarter.

Besides serving as the voice for the oil industry, it is crucial to  
understand that WSPA President Reheis-Boyd also wears another hat –  
“marine guardian" - that has allowed her and other corporate interests  
to help eviscerate "marine protection" in California.

In one of the biggest conflicts of interest in recent California  
history, Reheis-Boyd served as the Chair of the privately-funded  
Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative that created fake “marine  
protected areas” in Southern California. (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/mpa/brtf_bios_sc.asp 
)

While she was pushing for increased fracking and offshore oil drilling  
in California, the oil industry lobbyist also served on the task  
forces to create questionable “marine protected areas” on the Central  
Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast.

These alleged “marine protected areas” fail to protect the ocean from  
fracking, oil drilling, pollution, military testing, corporate  
aquaculture and all human impacts on the ocean other than sustainable  
fishing and gathering. The Marine Life Protection Act Initiative,  
lauded by corporate “environmentalists” and state officials as the  
“most open and transparent” process in California history, was in fact  
one of the most corrupt and conflict of interest-infested  
environmental fiascos ever seen in the state.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and media  
investigations by Associated Press and truthout.org reveal that the  
ocean has been fracked at least 203 times in the past 20 years,  
including the period from 2004 to 2012 that Reheis-Boyd served as a  
"marine guardian.” (http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/10/19/calif-finds-more-instances-of-offshore-fracking/3045721/ 
)

As if serving on a state marine protection panel wasn't bad enough,  
Reheis-Boyd also serves on a federal government marine protected areas  
panel. The National Marine Protected Areas Center website lists Reheis- 
Boyd as a member of a 20 member MPA (Marine Protected Areas) Advisory  
Committee.

Fortunately, despite the enormous influence of Big Oil on California  
politics through lobbying, public relations campaigns, campaign  
contributions and the industry’s hijacking of state and federal marine  
regulatory panels, Californians have voiced growing concerns about  
fracking.

A recent Public Policy Institute poll found that 54 percent of  
Californians oppose expanded fracking. Another recent poll  
commissioned by environmental organizations found that two-thirds of  
state residents want a moratorium on fracking, according to the Center  
for Biological Diversity.

The public’s concern about fracking is fed by recent revelations  
linking the oil industry to air and water pollution. Nearly 3 billion  
gallons of oil industry wastewater have been illegally dumped into  
California aquifers that were clean enough to supply drinking and  
irrigation water, according to recently released state Water Board  
documents. (http://sandiegofreepress.org/2014/10/massive-dumping-of-fracking-wastewater-into-aquifers-shows-big-oils-power-in-california/#.VFqHid3DyRo 
)

The Center also noted that data collected by the South Coast Air  
Quality Management District shows that oil companies have used  
millions of pounds of air toxic chemicals in the Los Angeles area over  
the past year. A new multistate study published in Environmental  
Health found dangerously high levels of cancer-causing chemicals in  
the air around fracked wells.

"The public tide is turning against fracking, not just in California  
but around the country,” Kretzmann said. “As voters from San Benito to  
Denton, Texas, showed, if regulators won’t protect them from fracking  
pollution, local communities can and will use the ballot box to  
protect themselves.”

Background: Big Oil Money and Power in California

While there are many powerful industries based in California, ranging  
from the computer and high tech industry to corporate agribusiness, no  
industry has more influence over the state's environmental policies  
than Big Oil.

An ongoing analysis of reports filed with the California Secretary of  
State shows that the oil industry, the largest and most powerful  
corporate lobby in Sacramento, collectively spent over $63 million  
lobbying California policymakers between January 1, 2009 and June 30,  
2014.

The Western States Petroleum Association, led by President Catherine  
Reheis-Boyd, the former chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA)  
Initiative to create so-called "marine protected areas" in Southern  
California, topped the oil industry lobby spending with $26,969,861.

A report released on April 1, 2014 by the ACCE Institute and Common  
Cause also revealed that the oil industry spent $123.6 million to  
lobby elected officials in California from 1999 through 2013. This was  
an increase of over 400 percent since the 1999-2000 legislative  
session, when the industry spent $4.8 million. In 2013-2014 alone, the  
top lobbyist employer, Western States Petroleum Association, spent  
$4.7 million.

The report also documents that Big Oil has spent $143.3 million on  
political candidates and campaigns – nearly $10 million per year and  
more than any other corporate lobby – over the past fifteen years. (http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2014/04/10/bil_oil_floods_the_capitol_4.1.14v2.pdf 
)

In addition to the oil industry spending exerting its enormous power  
through campaign contributions, lobbying legislators and serving on  
state and federal regulatory panels, the oil industry also has set up  
"Astroturf" groups, including the California Drivers Alliance and  
Fueling California, to fight against environmental regulations  
protecting our air, water, land, fish, wildlife and human health.

Yet these millions of dollars are just chump change to Big Oil, since  
the five big oil companies made over $93 billion in profits in 2013.  
This year their estimated profits to date are over $78 billion.(http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2014/02/10/83879/with-only-93-billion-in-profits-the-big-five-oil-companies-demand-to-keep-tax-breaks/ 
)



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