[env-trinity] Article Submission: Californians Against Fracking slams hearing process, calls for fracking ban

[Dan Bacher]

  http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/02/19/18768753.php

Photo of anti-fracking march in Oakland on February 7 by Dan Bacher.

800_pacific_islanders.jpg

Californians Against Fracking slams hearing process, calls for  
fracking ban

by Dan Bacher

Two weeks after the largest anti-fracking protest in U.S. history took  
place in Oakland, a broad coalition of environmental groups renewed  
their call on Governor Jerry Brown to ban fracking and other  
unconventional oil drilling following reports of illegal wastewater  
injection into protected aquifers.

Amid new investigative reports into the state’s mismanagement of oil  
industry wastewater wells and following a total fracking ban in the  
state of New York, community members concerned with the health and  
environmental risks of fracking and other unconventional oil  
extraction methods are calling on Brown, who constantly tries to  
portray himself as a "climate leader" and "green governor" at press  
conferences and other events, to take immediate action to protect  
Californians.

Residents and representatives from an array of environmental groups  
voiced concerns at a hearing in Oakland Wednesday evening, according  
to a news release from Californians Against Fracking. The event is one  
in a series of hearings hosted by the California state agency  
responsible for oil development, intended to allow the public to  
comment on a report on the impacts of fracking on communities’ health  
and the environment.

The hearing comes after the agency—the Conservation Department’s  
Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR)—issued fracking  
regulations at the beginning of this year, before the environmental  
impact report is complete.

“Governor Brown’s oil regulators have issued rules for fracking before  
they’ve even finished studying it, putting the cart before the horse  
and endangering lives," said David Braun in a statement before the  
hearing on behalf of Californians Against Fracking. "Unsurprisingly,  
this is the same agency responsible for issuing hundreds of illegal  
permits for the disposal of oil industry wastewater into multiple  
protected drinking water aquifers."

"DOGGR’s records also show that fracking flowback fluid, which ends up  
in wastewater disposal wells, contains high levels of benzene and  
other harmful chemicals. Clearly, the problems associated with  
fracking are a five alarm fire, but Jerry Brown and his Department of  
Conservation are treating it like business as usual. If Jerry Brown is  
truly serious about protecting the people of California and our  
communities’ health, air and water, he will immediately halt fracking  
and order his health department to study the issue. We’re confident  
his findings will be the same as New York’s: A total ban on fracking,"  
said Braun.

The hearing comes shortly after 8,000 Californians concerned with  
dangerous oil industry practices rallied in Oakland this month to call  
on Gov. Brown to ban fracking and transition California to 100 percent  
renewable energy, according to the group.

Californians Against Fracking is a coalition of about 200  
environmental business, health, agriculture, labor, political and  
environmental justice organizations working to win a statewide ban on  
fracking and other dangerous extraction techniques in California.  
Follow @CAagainstFrack on Twitter.

Want to take action? Tell Governor Brown: "You allowed the oil  
industry to illegally inject fracking wastewater into federally  
protected aquifers used for drinking water and irrigation during our  
historic drought. Immediately shut down all illegal oil waste  
injection wells, then place an emergency moratorium on fracking in  
California." Go to:http://act.credoaction.com/sign/ca_illegal_fracking_waste?t=3&akid=13146.300166.igThi6

Governor Jerry Brown's support of fracking takes place in the context  
of his administration's war on fish, water, the environment and the  
people of California. Brown has constantly gushed about his "green  
energy" and carbon trading policies at press conferences and photo  
opportunities while he is rushing the most environmentally destructive  
public works project in California history, the Bay Delta Conservation  
Plan (BDCP) to build the twin tunnels.

While the mainstream media and Brown's collaborators continue to  
greenwash the Governor's neo-liberal carbon trading policies, he has  
in fact continued and expanded the worst environmental policies of the  
Schwarzenegger administration, including exporting massive quantities  
of northern California to corporate agribusiness interests on the west  
side of the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water agencies  
and implementing the corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA)  
Initiative to create questionable "marine protected areas."

The illegitimacy and corruption of the MLPA Initiative process was  
evidenced by the alarming fact that Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the  
President of the Western States Petroleum Association who is leading  
the campaign to expand fracking in California, CHAIRED the Marine Life  
Protection Act Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create alleged  
"marine protected areas" in Southern California. She also served on  
the task forces to create so-called "marine protected areas" on the  
Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the Brown administration, in collaboration  
with the Obama administration, has presided over the near-extinction  
of Delta smelt, as well as driving the American River steelhead run to  
its lowest-ever recorded population level and killing off 95% of the  
endangered Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon last year. In  
recent California history, it is hard to find a Governor that has  
overseen more destruction of California's fish, waterways and  
environment than Jerry Brown, yet the mainstream media and some  
corporate "environmental" NGOs continue to falsely portray Brown as a  
"green" Governor. (http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/21/is-jerry-brown-running-scared/ 
)

For more information about how Brown and his collaborators are the  
biggest threats to California's environment, go to:http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/02/16/meet-the-biggest-threats-to-californias-environment-the-winners-of-the-annual-cold-dead-fish-awards

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