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CALIFORNIA RESTRICTS FRACKING, BUT DOES NOT BAN IT
On Friday, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state’s first fracking bill into law, which will impose the nation's toughest regulations on the oil and gas industry in the state but will also open up the vast Monterey Shale reserves for drilling.
The law will go into effect next year and requires oil and gas companies to list the chemicals they use in the fracking process online. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, involves injecting water, chemicals and sand into underground rock formations to unlock oil and gas reserves deep below the Earth’s surface. Fracking chemicals were exempted from federal disclosure laws and the Clean Water Act, so it is up to each state to decide if and how the oil and gas companies should disclose the chemical brew they use. The law will also require oil and gas companies to get a permit for fracking, notify neighbors before drilling and monitor ground water and ai...Continue Reading
![CALIFORNIA RESTRICTS FRACKING, BUT DOES NOT BAN IT
On Friday, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state’s first fracking bill into law, which will impose the nation's toughest regulations on the oil and gas industry in the state but will also open up the vast Monterey Shale reserves for drilling.
The law will go into effect next year and requires oil and gas companies to list the chemicals they use in the fracking process online. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, involves injecting water, chemicals and sand into underground rock formations to unlock oil and gas reserves deep below the Earth’s surface. Fracking chemicals were exempted from federal disclosure laws and the Clean Water Act, so it is up to each state to decide if and how the oil and gas companies should disclose the chemical brew they use. The law will also require oil and gas companies to get a permit for fracking, notify neighbors before drilling and monitor ground water and air quality. In addition, state officials will have to complete a study by 2015 that evaluates the risk of fracking.
Opposed by the oil industry, the measure "establishes strong environmental protections and transparency requirements," the governor said in a statement. In his signing message, Brown directed the state's Department of Conservation to develop "an efficient permitting program" to fine-tune the new regulations.
The governor's signature "is a first step toward greater transparency, accountability and protection of the public and the environment," said Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills). Her bill, SB 4, is the sole survivor of a half-dozen fracking proposals in the Legislature this year. It requires permitting of wells, notification of neighbors living near drilling, groundwater testing and a study of fracking's impact on the environment. It takes effect Jan. 1, 2014.
Oil industry reaction was muted. Companies complained that the regulations go further than they thought necessary for safe drilling. But Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Assn., a trade group, welcomed the chance to continue exploring oil-rich areas in the central and southern San Joaquin Valley.
In contrast, however, most environmental groups wanted a veto. The governor's action "is disappointing," said Kathryn Phillips, California director of the Sierra Club. "This bill does not provide the kind of protection or approach to fracking that we need."
LEARN more >> http://lat.ms/1fkHLgm, http://bit.ly/16Rxqot
TAKE ACTION:
SIGN THE PETITION by the @[72931140459:274:Center for Biological Diversity] to the Bureau of Land Management's State Director Jim Kenna urging the BLM to continue its moratorium on new oil lease sales while it studies fracking's threats to the Golden State.
>> http://bit.ly/16uthCE
Image credit: Beck Diefenbach/AP (via http://lat.ms/1fkHLgm)
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Studies by Stanford University civil engineer Richard L. Meehan conclude that "fracking" in the Los Angeles Inglewood oil field has resulted in reactivation of geologic faulting, affecting residential property and two elementary schools. >> http://bit.ly/13Afuwr
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