Before
Jerry Brown signed legislation last month that promises to greatly
expand fracking in California, the governor accepted at least $2.49
million in financial donations over the past several years from oil and
natural gas interests, according to public records on file with the
Secretary of State's Office and the California Fair Political Practices
Commission. Of the total, $770,000 went to Brown's two Oakland charter
schools — the Oakland School for the Arts and the Oakland Military
Institute. The other $1.72 million went to his statewide political
campaigns for attorney general and governor, along with his Proposition
30 ballot-measure campaign last year.
The governor signed Senate
Bill 4 into law despite widespread opposition from the environmental
community. The bill, which underwent major changes in the last week of
this year's legislative session after intense lobbying from the oil and
gas industry, requires state regulators to approve all fracking permit
requests in California for the next two years — as long as oil and gas
companies disclose to state officials what chemicals they're using
during hydraulic fracturing.
Fracking, a controversial process
that involves shooting massive amounts of water and toxic chemicals deep
into the earth in order to release otherwise trapped oil and natural
gas deposits, has been linked to groundwater and air pollution, and
there's evidence that it causes earthquakes. But the oil and gas
industry views California and its giant Monterey Shale deposit as the
next big boon for domestic fossil fuels. The underground deposit is
estimated to contain 15 billion barrels of extractable oil and natural
gas.
Several environmental groups, including Sierra Club
California, have called for a ban or a moratorium on fracking in the
state. And SB 4 originally created a division in the environmental
community — with several groups opposing it because they contended that
it was too weak, while other groups backed it for fear that the state
would end up with no regulations at all. However, some of these latter
groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the
California League of Conservation Voters, withdrew their support for SB 4
after the oil and gas industry successfully pushed for last-minute
changes to it.
SB 4 also originally sparked opposition from within
the Brown administration not long after state Senator Fran Pavley, a
Southern California Democrat, introduced it earlier this year. In May,
the state Department of Finance issued an official opposition letter on
SB 4, essentially contending that the legislation was too tough on oil
and gas companies and that it threatened to stifle the economic boom
that fracking may create in California. At the time, the bill proposed a
moratorium on fracking while the state conducts a full environmental
analysis of the oil and natural gas extraction method. "This bill could
result in significant negative impacts to California's economy," Brown's
Department of Finance argued back then. "A moratorium would likely
result in a significant loss of jobs and tax revenues."
The
oil and natural gas industry also adamantly opposed SB 4 throughout
much of 2013. But after behind-the-scenes lobbying, Pavley agreed on
September 6 to amend her legislation. Rather than imposing a temporary
moratorium, SB 4 instead forces state regulators to approve all fracking
requests. The bill also could undermine aspects of the California
Environmental Quality Act.
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Radiation Found in Penn. Watershed 300 Times Over Normal Levels
Radium 226RA was found in a local Penn. watershed, raising concerns amongst Americans across the country.
By Shepard Ambellas
Intellihub.com
October 2, 2013
WESTMORELAND
COUNTY, PENN. — The disposal of toxic chemical byproducts used in U.S.
oil and gas production (i.e. fracking) has led to the poisoning of our
watersheds and water supplies in some areas of the country. In fact, in
some instances the gaseous chemical byproducts have been so heavy they
have made their way into homes. It has even been documented that peoples
sink faucets have ignited into flames right at the kitchen tap.
However, flames aren’t enough anymore, the corporations doing the
fracking keep pushing for profits and now our water supply is at stake.
Runoff
from chemical plants threaten all animal, plant and human life more
than ever now as radiation has been discovered in the local Westmoreland
County watershed.
The official website for the
Blacklick Creek Watershed Association describes
what the area is supposed to be, “The Blacklick Creek watershed is 420
square miles in Indiana and Cambria counties. The largest streams are
Blacklick, Twolick and Yellow Creeks. These and other streams are
degraded by severe acid mine discharges. Many streams within the
watershed are polluted with high levels of metals and acidity. There
are many discharges from abandoned underground mines, poorly reclaimed
surface mines and coal refuse piles”
[1]
The journal for
Environmental Science and Technology published
a peer-reviewed study which yielded findings showing very high levels
of Radium (226RA) exist in the Westmoreland County Watersheds, Blacklick
Creek, which flows into the Allegheny River. “This study examined the
water quality and isotopic compositions of discharged effluents, surface
waters, and stream sediments associated with a treatment facility site
in western Pennsylvania.”, reads an excerpt from the study entitled,
Impacts of Shale Gas Wastewater Disposal on Water Quality in Western Pennsylvania.[2]
The
study concluded that chemicals used in the fracking process have ended
up in the watershed, posing a great risk. The study documents how Radium
“226Ra levels in stream sediments (544–8759 Bq/kg) at the point of
discharge were
200
times greater than upstream and background sediments (22–44 Bq/kg) and
above radioactive waste disposal threshold regulations, posing potential
environmental risks of radium bioaccumulation in localized areas of
shale gas wastewater disposal.”
[2]
Read More Here
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Cheneyesque fracking loophole leaves home and land owners uncertain (Video)
Karen HansenEnvironmental News Examiner
Play
The recent Colorado floods revealed the dangers of oil and water. (YouTube/ ClimateState)
September 30, 2013
A Cheneyesque
fracking
loophole in California’s recent SB4 fracking legislation re-sets the
national tone of the oil & gas industry towards home and land
owner’s properties to 'uncertain.'
The “Golden” state, known for
leading the way in its renewable portfolio standards to 33% by 2020, may
now instead be marred with the unintended consequences of ‘green
lighting,’ rather than abating the practice of fracking. Vice President
Cheney originally set the ‘fracking loophole’ into motion to skirt the
Clean Water Act given the Bush Energy Policy of 2005.
“The
loopholes,” writes Sofia Plagakis from the Center for Effective
Government, “regarding waivers of an environmental impact analysis leave
the legislation ineffective in protecting public health and the
environment
for the next two years. Environmental groups and communities are
calling on Brown and state lawmakers to fix these provisions and to
impose a moratorium until the state can full assess the threats of
fracking and acidization to California’s air, water, and communities.”
Despite
an applauded-by-activists planned online disclosure of what is
contained in the chemical cocktail being injected into the subsurface;
under the new legislation, fracking will not be regulated by the State
Water Quality Control Board’s underground injection program, but instead
given to the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR),
potentially circumventing California’s Environmental Quality Act (CEQA.)
“The
big picture,” per Adam Scow, California Director for Food and Water
Watch, “is that SB4 never did anything to make fracking safer or to slow
it down.”
Disclosure of anything material to a prospective home, land buyer meets standard of care
Disclosing
any information ‘material’ to the sale of a home or land constitutes
California’s standard of care. Residential and Commercial Real Estate
Disclosure giant First American Real Estate Disclosures JCP-LGS division
currently produces an environmental screening report that discloses the
location of active and abandoned oil and gas wells within ¼-mile of the
sale property.
The firm's licensed geologist Patrick McClellan
released the statement, “We are evaluating the availability and
usefulness of data from the California Department of Conservation to
determine whether a property-specific disclosure of fracking operations
is feasible.”
The California Association of Realtors said they were looking into the issue.
Already
per the South Coast AQMD Rule 1148.2 Well Stimulation notifications
mapping project, the South Coast Air Quality Management District
(SCAQMD) has implemented noticing and reporting requirements for oil and
gas wells within its district. This is called rule 1148.2 and requires
oil operators to submit specific reports of well activity related to
well stimulation and drilling. The type of well stimulations reported
include Hydraulic Fracturing (fracking), Acidizing (acid-fracking) and
gravel packing (smaller-scale fracking). Along with these reports,
chemical notification is also required.
Wait a minute, I
thought the California Democratic Party’s position on fracking was to
support a moratorium, something like in New York
What
changed? The California Democratic party passed several resolutions
saying no to fracking at its heavily attended convention in Sacramento
only just in April. Tenoch Flores, Communications Director for the party
simply responded with an honest, “I don’t know,” then forwarded this
link to the actual fracking resolution adopted.
Amendment 24
And
then they came, 4 last minute amendments; Amendment 24, the worst of
them. Like something out of a Dick Cheney horror flick to
environmentalists- in came the actual language:
Where the
supervisor determines the activities proposed in the well simulation
treatment permit or the combined authorization have met all of the
requirements of Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000), and have
been fully described, analyzed, evaluated, and mitigated, no additional
review or mitigation shall be required.”
Climate Hawks react to fracking regulation
RL
Miller, Chair of the California Democratic Party’s Environmental
Caucus, and founder of the Climate Hawks SuperPac rekindled what
occurred from her perspective as a leader on the fracking issue in the
Earth Island Journal : “A California Fracking Moratorium Post-Mortem.
“The
September 6 amendments were so bad that the CA League of Conservation
Voters, NRDC, Environmental Working Group, and Clean Water Action pulled
their support of SB4. However, they didn’t send out their big press
release until mid-morning Wednesday, September 11 around the same time
as the Assembly began voting on SB4. A couple of Assemblymembers stated
on Twitter that they didn’t know that support had been pulled until
after they voted.”
"Under the new changes," notes Miller,
“fracking would be able to continue without permits until 2015. Yes, you
read that right — the bill intended to make frackers get permits now
says that the state regulatory agency shall allow all of the currently
ongoing, unpermitted fracking and acidizing to keep on fracking and
acidizing without permits until regulations are written in 2015.”
Propaganda Fracking Wars
Miller
recalls, “Some troubling signs appeared up right away. A lot of stories
and columns and op-eds extolling the financial benefits of the Monterey
Shale popped up in a lot of strange places. It was almost as though a
wealthy industry was gearing up a sophisticated yet stealthy public
relations campaign in anticipation of a tough public fight.
Miller refers to Governor
Jerry Brown
as a ‘former environmentalist ‘who called fracking a “fabulous economic
opportunity” and signaled that he would not impose a moratorium. A
state senator told Miller: “Governor Brown has cut a deal with the oil
companies.” “Sure enough,” Miller writes, “they had rounded up a million
dollars to give to his Proposition 30 last year. Then Occidental maxed
out donating his 2014 reelection campaign in June 2013 — almost as if
Oxy were sending a signal that it approved of his activities on its
behalf.”
Lastly she reported, “A report mostly funded by the
Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) predicted billions of
dollars and millions of jobs from California’s next black gold rush. I’m
told that a Brown staffer shoved the report down the throat of any
recalcitrant legislator interested in a moratorium. By the way, WSPA is
California’s biggest spending lobbyist. Chevron is number six.
Read More Here
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