Fracking on CA public lands

Now: Speak out against fracking on public lands in California today!

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Bakersfield, Calif. – The Trump Administration today (actually 8/8/18) launched a 30-day public comment period on the environmental and public health impacts of hydraulic fracking in central California. The move is the first step in a process that will decide whether to allow the controversial oil extraction technique across 1.6 million acres of federal public land and mineral rights in Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Kern, and neighboring counties.

Last Week’s announcement – published in the Federal Register – was prompted by a 2015 lawsuit filed by Los Padres ForestWatch and the Center for Biological Diversity, represented by Earthjustice. The lawsuit alleged that the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) failed to consider the impacts of fracking as part of the BLM’s update of its Resource Management Plan for federal lands within the jurisdiction of the agency’s Bakersfield Field Office.

The groups prevailed in 2016 when a judge concluded that BLM failed to adequately analyze the impacts of fracking across vast swaths of public land in the region. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, based in Los Angeles, ordered the agency to evaluate those impacts in a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. In a settlement agreement with ForestWatch and the Center, the BLM agreed to not issue any new leases for oil drilling in the region until the supplemental report is complete.

You can find the rest of this article at: https://lpfw.org/trump-administration-begins-process-to-reopen-1-6-million-acres-in-california-to-oil-drilling-and-fracking/

The BLM’s comment deadline closes on September 7, 2018. To submit comments, visit LPFW.org/fracking. You can also send your comments directly to the BLM.

11 thoughts on “Fracking on CA public lands

  1. Thank you for giving us a chance to voice our objections, Kate. This is critical information. I sent my letter.

  2. I’m not in the oil business and I own no fracking stocks and I didn’t vote for Trump, so I’m able to respond. Fracking is significantly better for the world environment and for US security than either US coal or foreign petroleum. I understand NIMBY, but please understand that we would be much worse off without fracking. Natural gas and solar together also combine for almost all new energy generation.

    And please don’t give me the earthquake nonsense – releasing stresses in the earth before they build up into the next “big one” is a good thing, not a negative.

    Bigsurkate, I love your blog. Please keep it up, but please be cautious about attacking new technology (eg fracking) which is not perfect but is far superior to its predecessor.

  3. Thank you for your comment, Bob, and glad you enjoy my blog. I am not attacking this at this point, just providing information. I understand there are always at least two sides and many times even more. But with public comment periods being only 30 days, I think it is important for people to have the opportunity to make their voices heard.

    https://bigsurkate.blog

  4. Fracking consistently contaminates private water supplies.

    The natural gas is sold overseas, profiting only the gas companies.

    Often land owners are misled by contracts, go unpaid, and have to abandon their properties due to spoiled well water.

    I don’t know what station some of you are tuned to- unreality/imagined dream land/they told me it would be better, ain’t?

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