[CRNMC] California releases fracking regulations six months before studies are complete

[edward Oberweiser]

California releases fracking regulations six months before studies are complete

Governor Jerry Brown continued to live up to his reputation as "Big
Oil Brown" with his administration's release of the finalized text of
the state's regulations for fracking and well stimulation on Tuesday,
December 30.

Although Senate Bill 4, passed in September 2013, requires
California's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) to
complete an environmental impact report and approve an independent
scientific study, "neither one of those documents were ready in time
to inform the final rules," according to a news release from CAFrack
Facts (http://www.cafrackfacts.org).

Although the regulations have been finalized, they will not go into
effect until July 1st due to delays in coordinating multiple agencies.

“California has essentially reversed the regulatory process when it
comes to fracking,” said Jackie Pomeroy, spokesperson for
CAFrackFacts. “State regulators  have finalized California's fracking
rules a full six months before any of the mandated scientific studies
have been completed. Given the long-term and potentially irreversible
impacts of fracking and well stimulation, it is critical that we make
policy decisions based on science—unfortunately, the current timeline
makes this impossible.”

Pomeroy noted that in contrast to California, New York recently
decided to continue its moratorium on fracking after concluding that
the practice poses unknown  risks to human health and safety.

After his team spent several years and over 4,500 hours reviewing
scientific research, New York’s Commissioner of Health, Dr. Howard
Zucker, declared that, “there are questions that remain unanswered
from lack of scientific analysis, specifically longitudinal studies of
[fracking].”

He concluded, “Would I live in a community with [fracking] based on
the facts that I have now? Would I let my child play in a school field
nearby? After looking at the plethora of reports behind me ... my
answer is no."

"New York is the first state to put the science before the politics
and come to a conclusion based on the weight of the evidence,”
explains Seth B.C. Shonkoff, Executive Director of PSE Healthy Energy.
"The decision is a clear example of how bringing scientific
transparency to the issue - highlighting what we know and don't know -
is an important component of responsible energy policy decision
making.”

For more information on California's fracking regulations you can go
to:http://www.conservation.ca.gov/...

Jerry Brown, once known as "Governor Moonbeam" for his quirkiness and
eccentricities during his first two administrations from 1975 to 1983,
 transformed himself into "Big Oil Brown" during his third
administration. He will be inaugurated in his fourth term as Governor
on January 5, 2015.

Big Oil strongly supported the amended version of Senate Bill 4, the
green light to fracking bill, that Brown signed in September 2013.
Just ask Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the President of the Western States
Petroleum Association (WSPA) and former chair of the Marine Life
Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South
Coast, who praised the governor's signing of Senate Bill 4 for
creating the "environmental" platform to expand fracking in
California.(http://www.wspa.org/...)

The Western States Petroleum Association is the most powerful
corporate lobbying organization in Sacramento and has spent
$31,179,039 since January 1, 2009 to lobby against anti-fracking
measures and California's environmental laws, according to a report
written by Will Barrett, the Senior Policy Analyst for the American
Lung Association in California. (http://www.lung.org/...)

Besides supporting the expansion of fracking in California, Governor
Brown has also rushed the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build
two massive tunnels under the Delta, the most environmentally
destructive public works project in California history; presided over
record water exports at the Delta pumps in 2011; pushed water policies
that have driven Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail,
Central Valley salmon and other fish populations to the edge of
extinction; and implemented the oil industry lobbyist-overseen "marine
protected areas" created under the privately-funded Marine Life
Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.