ENVIRONMENT CALIFORNIA CALLS TO BAN FRACKING

Media Contacts

Environment California

Sacramento- Environment California called on Governor Brown to ban fracking in California.

“Fracking is an environmental nightmare for California,” said Dan Jacobson, legislative director for Environment California. “We are calling on Governor Brown to wake up and stop fracking before it gets out of control.”

Fracking for oil and natural gas has spread like wildfire across the United States, leaving a trail of polluted air and water, altered landscapes, and damaged communities in its wake.

Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) is the high-pressure injection of water, sand and chemicals into underground shale rock formations. Fracking breaks up the shale and allows the oil or gas trapped within it to flow to the surface. While oil companies have been using some form of hydraulic fracturing for decades, new techniques allow fracking to be used in more places and with far greater impact on the environment.

Covering 2,520 square miles, the Monterey Shale region is home to some of California’s most beautiful places and most productive farmland, as well as more than 6.8 million people.[i] Fracking in the Monterey Shale would put these special places at risk.

According to a Congressional study, 13 different cancer-causing chemicals were found in the fracking fluids used by oil and gas companies between 2005 and 2009.[ii] In addition, California oil wells return five gallons of “produced water,” often laced with contaminants such as boron, ammonia and organic compounds, for every barrel of oil.[iii] [iv]

Beyond impending water pollution, prime agricultural land in the Central Valley and the world-class vineyards of the Central Coast sit atop the Monterey Shale. Farmers, many of whom do not own the mineral rights to their land, are virtually powerless to stop oil companies proceeding with drilling.[v] [vi]

 “Fracking is bad for our air, our water, and our beautiful places,” said Jacobson. “There is simply no room for fracking in California. Governor Brown, you have the chance to protect California for the years and decades to come. Ban fracking in California.”

For more information about Environment California and our campaign to Ban Fracking check out: http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/programs/cae/no-fracking-california

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Environment California is a state-based, citizen-funded environmental advocacy organization that works toward a cleaner, greener, healthier future.


   

[i] U.S. Energy Information Administration, Assumptions to the Annual Energy Outlook 2012, 2012.

[ii] U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Minority Staff, Chemicals Used in Hydraulic Fracturing, April 2011.

[iii] 2002 figures from: http://www.evs.anl.gov/pub/doc/ProducedWatersWP0401.pdf

[iv] http://www.environmental-expert.com/Files/5306/articles/13847/481.pdf

[v] In December 2012, for example, the federal government auctioned oil and gas leases for nearly 18,000 acres in Fresno, Monterey and San Benito counties – 82 percent of which were privately owned land. Nearly 18,000: http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/ca/pdf/pa/energy/minerals.Par.21717.File.dat/508-SaleResults2-12-12.pdf. 82 percent: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/10/27/some-central-calif-landowner…

[vi] http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/02/local/la-me-kern-oil-20121204