[CRNMC] Oil Lobby sets new spending record in Sacramento

[Community Rights Network]

HI Beth,

I posted this.

Ed Oberweiser


On Sun, May 4, 2014 at 8:33 AM, Community Rights Network
<crn at lists.mcn.org>wrote:

> *Who posted this?  Please let me know.* *I'd like to discuss it with you.*
> Beth B
>
>
> On Sun, May 4, 2014 at 4:17 AM, Community Rights Network <
> crn at lists.mcn.org> wrote:
>
>>  Western States Petroleum Association spent $6.1 million in 3 months
>>
>>  by Dan Bacher
>>
>>  The new numbers for the amount of money spent on lobbying in Sacramento
>> in the first three months of 2014 just came in from the Secretary of
>> State's Office and guess who finished first?
>>
>>  Yes, holding fast to number one is that august body of environmental
>> stewardship known as the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA),
>> "making sure lawmakers don't forget about the Big Oil little guy,"
>> according to Stop Fooling California. (http://www.stopfoolingca.org)
>>
>>  The Western States Petroleum Association, the most powerful corporate
>> lobbying group in Sacramento, spent $6.1 million in just 3 months.
>> Amazingly, this is more money than the association has spent in any one
>> year over the past five years!
>>
>>  The organization spent $5,331,493 in 2009, $4,013,813 in 2010,
>> $4,273,664 in 2011, $5,698,917 in 2012 and $4,670,010 in 2013.
>>
>>  In spite of all of this money spent, a bill imposing a moratorium on
>> fracking and acidizing for oil extraction in California passed through the
>> Senate Environmental Quality Committee on April 30 by a 5 to 2 vote.
>> Senators Mark Leno, Jerry Hill, Loni Hancock, Hannah-Beth Jackson and Fran
>> Pavley voted for Senate Bill 1132, while Senators Ted Gaines and Jean
>> Fuller voted against it.
>>
>>  Authored by Senators Holly Mitchell and Mark Leno, SB 1132 would
>> require the Natural Resources Agency to facilitate an "independent
>> scientific study" on well stimulation treatments (fracking and acidizing)
>> and their hazards and risks to natural resources and public, occupational,
>> and environmental health and safety by January 1, 2015.
>>
>>  “People must come before profits,” said Senator Mitchell after the
>> vote. “My community needs jobs, but those jobs need to be safe for workers
>> and surrounding communities.”
>>
>>  Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum
>> Association and former Chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA)
>> Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create so-called "marine protected
>> areas" in Southern California, wasn't very happy with the results of the
>> Committee vote, especially after her organization spent $6.1 million
>> lobbying at the Capitol over the past three months. You can bet that her
>> association and the oil companies will spend many millions more attempting
>> to defeat this bill in the Legislature in coming months.
>>
>>  In her blog on the WSPA website (
>> http://www.wspa.org/blog/post/where-and-whom-we-stand-sb-1132),
>> Reheis-Boyd stated:
>>
>>  *"The passage of Senate Bill 1132 from the Senate’s Environmental
>> Quality Committee is neither a surprise nor an indication that this poorly
>> written legislation is gaining support. *
>>
>>  *While the theater of SB 1132 plays out in Sacramento, SB 4 is already
>> the law of the land throughout California. Last year, Governor Brown signed
>> into law regulations that received strong bipartisan support in the
>> Assembly and Senate. Many of those 'rallying' around SB 1132 voted for SB
>> 4, the strongest and most stringent regulation on hydraulic fracturing in
>> the country. *
>>
>>  *Anti-oil activists are attempting to push hydraulic fracturing
>> moratoriums in Sacramento and in local governments throughout the state – a
>> strategy that just suffered a major setback. Their tactics include
>> spreading misinformation about water use, chemicals, industry transparency,
>> and jobs. *
>>
>>  *Shockingly, the anti-oil camp’s attacks on oil production reached new
>> lows last week when several of the leading anti-oil groups took aim at
>> petroleum industry workers when they dismissed as unwanted and unworthy the
>> hundreds of thousands of jobs our industry supports. This disappointing
>> tactic was summed up in the headline of a recent letter to the Los Angeles
>> Times: 'Some jobs aren’t worth it.' *
>>
>>  *Of course the petroleum industry cares about California’s environment
>> and water supply. This is why we believe SB 4 provides important and
>> necessary oversight. Hydraulic fracturing is not just a new industry fad
>> that was concocted for the sole purpose of harming humanity. The reality is
>> quite the opposite. Lost in the hysteria is the historic fact that
>> hydraulic fracturing has been employed in California for nearly six decades
>> without environmental incident or hazard. It is why the United States is
>> experiencing a welcome and rewarding energy renaissance that is benefiting
>> consumers nationwide and dramatically improving our nation’s energy
>> security."  *
>>
>>  Yes, Reheis-Boyd and her industry really "care" about California's
>> environment and water supply. That's why she and her cohorts on the MLPA
>> Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force made sure that the questionable "marine
>> protected areas" created in Southern California under her "leadership" fail
>> to protect the ocean from fracking, oil drilling, pollution, corporate
>> aquaculture, military testing and all human impacts on the ocean other than
>> fishing and gathering. (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/mpa/brtf_bios_sc.asp
>> )
>>
>>  Reheis-Boyd, state officials and MLPA advocates ensured that these
>> alleged "marine protected areas" were good for big oil and ocean
>> industrialists - and bad for fishermen, tribal gatherers and the public
>> trust.
>>
>>  In one of the biggest conflicts of interest in recent California
>> history, Reheis-Boyd also "served" on the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces to
>> create so-called "marine protected areas" on the North Coast, North Central
>> Coast and Central Coast. She also currently sits on a federal "marine
>> protected areas" panel.
>>
>>  As she was serving on these panels, the oil industry was engaging in a
>> frenzy of environmentally destructive fracking operations off the Southern
>> California coast, as revealed in an Associated Press and Freedom of
>> Information Act investigation last year.
>>
>>  The process that Reheis-Boyd oversaw created "state marine reserves"
>> that violate the traditional gathering rights of the Yurok Tribe and other
>> California Indian Tribes to harvest seaweed, mussels and fish, as they have
>> done for thousands of years. In addition, the privately funded process
>> rejected numerous requests by Yurok Tribe scientists and lawyers to present
>> scientific studies that countered the terminally flawed and incomplete
>> "science," based on flawed assumptions. (
>> http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2011/07/15/lop_yurok_6-29_11.pdf)
>>
>>  As Frankie Joe Myers, Yurok Tribe member and Coastal Justice Coalition
>> organizer, said before a direct action protest against the MLPA Initiative
>> in Fort Bragg in July 2010, “The whole process is inherently flawed by
>> institutionalized racism. It doesn’t recognize Tribes as political
>> entities, or Tribal biologists as legitimate scientists.” (
>> http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/07/24/18654645.php)
>>
>>  More recently, the industry that Reheis-Boyd says "cares about
>> California's environment and water supply" was engaged in over 100
>> violations of California’s new public disclosure rules for fracking and
>> other dangerous oil production methods. The violations were uncovered by a
>> Center for Biological Diversity analysis of records from the state, the oil
>> industry and South Coast air quality regulators.
>>
>>  In a letter to Governor Jerry Brown, the Center pointed out that state
>> regulators with the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources have
>> failed to disclose legally mandated reports for 47 frack jobs and notices
>> for more than 100 uses of other risky oil production techniques.
>>
>>  “This lack of disclosure underscores the failure of current regulations
>> and the need for strong action that will protect public health and safety
>> and the environment,” the letter says.
>>
>>  “Californians are in the dark about dangerous fracking in their
>> communities because Gov. Brown’s oil regulators won’t follow their own
>> minimal notification rules,” said Center attorney Hollin Kretzmann in a
>> statement. “These regulatory failures are another reminder of the urgent
>> need to halt fracking to protect our air and water from contamination. Gov.
>> Brown must recognize that halting fracking and the other dangerous well
>> stimulation methods is the only way to protect Californians."
>>
>>  The problems revealed by the Center’s analysis include the following:
>>
>>  • Missing Fracking Reports: At least 47 frack jobs conducted in
>> Southern California in January and February do not have a well stimulation
>> report on DOGGR’s website, despite a requirement that such documents be
>> posted 60 days after the fracking event.
>>
>>  • Late posting: Dozens of other fracking reports were posted late — and
>> only after the Center informed state officials of the unlawful delay.
>>
>>  • Missing chemical data - Other fracking reports are missing critical
>> information, including the chemical composition of fracking waste fluid and
>> where this fluid was disposed of. A Kern County oil company was recently
>> fined for disposing of such fracking wastewater in an unlined pit.
>>
>>  • Missing Acidizing Notices: The state’s website does not show notices
>> for 57 uses of acidization in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Acidizing
>> uses high quantities of hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids in combination
>> with other harmful chemicals to dissolve oil-bearing formations
>> underground.
>>
>>  • Missing Gravel Packing Notices: Gravel packing, a well stimulation
>> method that uses dangerous chemicals, has occurred in Orange and Los
>> Angeles counties approximately 51 times so far this year, according to the
>> South Coast Air Quality Management District. Yet state oil regulators have
>> not posted a notice of a single instance of gravel packing from anywhere in
>> the state, despite regulations requiring such notification.
>>
>>  A recent Center report also found that fracking, acidizing and gravel
>> packing operations employed 12 dangerous “air toxic” chemicals hundreds of
>> times in the Los Angeles Basin over a period of a few months.
>>
>>  For more information, go to:
>> http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2014/fracking-04-30-2014.html
>>
>>
>>  If the petroleum industry really "cares about California’s environment
>> and water supply" like Reheis-Boyd claims it does, why did the industry
>> engage in 100 violations of California’s new public disclosure rules for
>> fracking and other dangerous oil production methods, as documented in the
>> Center for Biological Diversity's report?
>>
>>  You can bet that Reheis-Boyd's group and Big Oil will continue to spend
>> millions this year to defeat Senate Bill 1132 and any other bill that
>> challenges their plan to frack California. A ground breaking report
>> released on April 1, 2014 by the ACCE Institute and Common Cause reveals
>> that Big Oil spent $123.6 million to lobby elected officials in California
>> over the past 15 years, an increase of over 400 percent since the 1999-2000
>> legislative session, when the industry spent $4.8 million.
>>
>>  The report also examines historical campaign contributions by the
>> largest firms in the oil and gas industry. Over the last fifteen years, Big
>> Oil has spent $143.3 million on political candidates and campaigns – nearly
>> $10 million per year and more than any other corporate lobby. (
>> http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/14/how-big-oil-bought-sacramento/)
>>
>>  When combined, Big Oil's lobbying spending and campaign spending in
>> Sacramento amounts to $266.9 million over 15 years.
>>
>>  Yet this is mere pocket change, the "cost of doing business" for the
>> oil industry, since the industry makes many billions of dollars in profits
>> every year as gas prices soar for consumers at the pumps. The oil industry
>> has made over $31 billion in profits in 2014 to date. (
>> http://www.stopfoolingca.org/)
>>
>>  Take Action Now!
>>
>>  As the oil industry plans the expansion of fracking under Senate Bill 4
>> and gas prices soar at the pumps to boost oil industry profits, Governor
>> Jerry Brown is fast tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to
>> build the peripheral tunnels. The proposed tunnels would divert Sacramento
>> River water for use by corporate agribusiness interests, Southern
>> California water agencies and oil companies expanding fracking and steam
>> injection operations.
>>
>>  The construction of the twin tunnels would hasten the extinction of
>> Central Valley salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other
>> fish species, as well as imperil salmon and steelhead populations on the
>> Trinity and Klamath rivers. The tunnels would not create one single drop of
>> new water - and would do nothing to alleviate the current drought if they
>> were in place right now.
>>
>>  On March 4, Restore the Delta and Food and Water Watch revealed that
>> much of the area that the oil industry could frack for oil and natural gas
>> in California is located in and near toxic, drainage-impaired land farmed
>> by corporate agribusiness interests on the west side of the San Joaquin
>> Valley. (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/03/05/18751984.php)
>>
>>  To sign a petition urging Governor Jerry Brown to ban fracking in
>> California, go to the Food and Water Watch action alert:
>> https://secure3.convio.net/fww/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=193
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> "The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've
> seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as
> speaking out. There's no innocence. Either way, you're accountable.” Arundhati
> Roy <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6134.Arundhati_Roy>
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