Fracking News

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CA Oil & Gas Press Clips

Thursday, August 4, 2016

TOP STORY
• Environmentalists sued state agencies Wednesday to halt oil well injections into a federally protected aquifer near California's Central Coast. California oil and gas regulators failed to assess environmental consequences before forwarding a so-called aquifer exemption to federal officials for final approval, the Center for Biological Diversity said in the lawsuit filed in San Luis Obispo Superior Court. The Department of Conservation's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources in February signed off on granting the exemption to Freeport-McMoRan Oil &Gas that would allow the oil company to inject steam and oil production wastewater into an aquifer beneath rolling hills that are also home to vineyards and homes a few miles outside Pismo Beach. (ABC News)

CALIFORNIA
Porter Ranch Residents Ask Governor to Keep SoCalGas Facility Closed
FOX 40 | Rina Nakano
A group of residents and activists rallied at the state Capitol Wednesday to ask the governor to shut down a natural gas facility in Southern California. They said life at Porter Ranch in Los Angeles County, or "Methane Mountain" as they now call it, is like dying a slow death. Now, assuring the public everything has been fixed, SoCalGas wants to reopen their Aliso Canyon Storage Facility. Protestors are praying Gov. Jerry Brown will use his executive power to keep Aliso Canyon closed forever, and act on his promise to make California the cleanest energy state in the country.

Suit: California failed to study oil well impact on water
Associated Press| Brian Melley
Environmentalists sued state agencies Wednesday to halt oil well injections into a federally protected aquifer near California's Central Coast. California oil and gas regulators failed to assess environmental consequences before forwarding a so-called aquifer exemption to federal officials for final approval, the Center for Biological Diversity said in the lawsuit filed in San Luis Obispo Superior Court. The Department of Conservation's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources in February signed off on granting the exemption to Freeport-McMoRan Oil &Gas that would allow the oil company to inject steam and oil production wastewater into an aquifer beneath rolling hills that are also home to vineyards and homes a few miles outside Pismo Beach.

Big Oil Renewing Effort To Kill California's Landmark Climate Law
DeSmog Blog | Larry Buhl
As California's Global Warming Solutions Act, AB-32, approaches its 10th birthday, Big Oil is renewing efforts to roll it back and the governor and pro-environmental lawmakers in Sacramento are racing against the clock to counter the onslaught. AB-32 set a 2020 target to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels. But a key part of it, the cap-and-trade program, will sunset in 2020 unless legislators and Governor Jerry Brown can come up with a new law to let it continue. Last month, Brown and Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) president Catherine Reheis-Boyd admitted to confirmed reports of ongoing negotiation between the governor and oil industry groups on the issue of AB-32, though they didn't disclose exactly what they've discussed.

Bay Area County Snubs Fossil Fuel Industry, Finalizes Fracking Ban
Color Lines | Yessenia Funes
Yesterday (Aug. 2), Alameda County, California, finalized its fracking ban, the first in the Bay Area. The county's Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to pass the Zoning Ordinance Amendment July 19, but this second unanimous vote solidifies it. The ban will take effect in 30 days. So far, the county—which is 71.3 percent people of color—has stayed clear of drilling, but groups like the Sierra Club and Food and Water Watch are taking preventative measures, especially because Gov. Jerry Brown rejects a statewide ban on the extractive process.

Porter Ranch residents take battle to close SoCalGas facility to state Capitol
Los Angeles Daily News | Darcy Costello
Gov. Jerry Brown's office made no commitments on a permanent closure of the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility during a meeting Wednesday with concerned Southern California residents who live near the facility, which has been crippled since a gas leak that started in October and was capped in February. Many residents who want Aliso Canyon shut down say they've experienced health symptoms including headaches, nausea and nosebleeds. Some 8,000 relocated after the gas well blowout, although many have since returned. Environmental groups say permanently closing the facility provides Brown an opportunity to be a climate leader and take a step toward renewable energy and to move away from a reliance on natural gas.

OPINION & PRESS RELEASE

On Climate Change, Jerry Brown Has Nothing to Brag About
Food & Water Watch | Adam Scow
California governor Jerry Brown visited Philadelphia for the Democratic Convention where he once again bragged to the world about his supposed leadership on fighting climate change. But in reality Governor Brown has stopped short of taking meaningful actions to phase out greenhouse gas emissions. He has consistently refused to ban fracking in the Golden State — missing the benchmark set by Vermont, New York, and Maryland — and has held backroom meetings in recent weeks with recalcitrant oil industry executives to salvage his ill-conceived cap-and-trade program. Rather than meeting behind closed doors to trade away environmental protections in the name of compromise, there is a lot Brown could do to make real strides in fighting climate change.

Alameda Fracking Ban: All Bark with No Bite
JD Supra Business Advisor | Michael Mills, Shannon Morrissey
On July 19, 2016, Alameda County, California ("County") became the first county in the Bay Area to approve a ban on hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking"). The County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the ban through an amendment to the Alameda County Zoning Ordinance ("Ordinance"). Practically speaking, however, the Ordinance is all bark with no bite because the ban will not have an impact on oil production in Alameda County. Currently, there is no fracking occurring in the County and no plans to do so. The ban appears to be symbolic, and just another step in a larger agenda to ban fracking and other well stimulation treatments in the state, county-by-county.