{"id":15165,"date":"2013-08-15T20:41:47","date_gmt":"2013-08-15T20:41:47","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-08-19T20:51:21","modified_gmt":"2013-08-19T20:51:21","slug":"the-fracking-fracking-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2013\/08\/15\/the-fracking-fracking-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fracking Fracking Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"<\/a>Pavley Bill splits environmental community<\/i><\/p>\n

by Brian Leubitz<\/p>\n

Yes, I went with the Battelstar Galactica reference, but with the melee that is currently surrounding fracking legislation in the California legislature, battle is a good term. So, let’s start with the baseline: SB 4, Sen. Pavley’s legislation<\/a> does not currenty include a moratorium on the environmentally questionable (!) practice of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). <\/p>\n

The next four weeks will determine how aggressively California regulates the controversial oil-drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing. And as state Sen. Fran Pavley points out, “four weeks is a long time, legislatively.”<\/p>\n

The energy industry is watching these developments closely and with a degree of apprehension.<\/p>\n

Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, has spent the summer engaged in negotiations with the governor’s office, energy industry and environmental groups. She’s the prime sponsor of SB 4, a bill that would tighten how California regulates hydraulic fracturing and how much public information drillers would have to provide about their activities. (Scott Detrow \/ KQED<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The debate over the moratorium has meant that there are environmentalists on both sides of the bill. However, in many ways it boils down to an issue of tactics, but I welcome any opinions that differ with me about this. Pavley’s bill is better than the status quo, but it doesn’t get the state to the total ban where it should be in the short term until it is totally clear that this process is safe. That data just isn’t there at this point, and with the data connecting fracking and earthquakes<\/a>, safety seems to be in the background for the frackers.<\/p>\n

So if SB 4 passes, and puts a few limits and regulations on hydraulic fracturing, the big question is whether there will be momentum for another major piece of legislation in the future. It is the ongoing legislative conundrum of wait for the perfect or take what you can get. Clean Water Action supports the measure (PDF)<\/a>, but Credo, MoveOn and other groups are looking to kill the bill<\/a> unless it includes a moratorium. In related news, the California Democratic Party are on the record as supporting a moratorium<\/a>. However, the party hasn’t specifically said anything about the current debate.<\/p>\n

The bill will likely move forward within the next few weeks, but CREDO and others are calling for the bill to be shelved if there is no moratorium. We’ll know pretty soon which way this fight will go.<\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/b>: Lauren Steiner has an excellent post at CommonDreams<\/a> about why SB 4 is worse than no regulation at all. Here is an emotionally powerful quote on her reasoning:<\/p>\n

Instead, the flawed bill sets up a process for notification, disclosure, monitoring and permitting and simply calls for future regulations by other agencies and a scientific study.<\/p>\n

Telling someone when you’re going to frack, where you’re going to frack and what chemicals you will use, is like a murderer telling you he’s going to shoot you on your front porch at noon tomorrow using an AK-47.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, you’re still dead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the full post<\/a> for a more full perspective from the perspective of environmentalists seeking to block SB 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"<\/a>Pavley Bill splits environmental community<\/i><\/p>\n

by Brian Leubitz<\/p>\n

Yes, I went with the Battelstar Galactica reference, but with the melee that is currently surrounding fracking legislation in the California legislature, battle is a good term. So, let’s start with the baseline: SB 4, Sen. Pavley’s legislation<\/a> does not currenty include a moratorium on the environmentally questionable (!) practice of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). <\/p>\n

The next four weeks will determine how aggressively California regulates the controversial oil-drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing. And as state Sen. Fran Pavley points out, “four weeks is a long time, legislatively.”<\/p>\n

The energy industry is watching these developments closely and with a degree of apprehension.<\/p>\n

Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, has spent the summer engaged in negotiations with the governor’s office, energy industry and environmental groups. She’s the prime sponsor of SB 4, a bill that would tighten how California regulates hydraulic fracturing and how much public information drillers would have to provide about their activities. (Scott Detrow \/ KQED<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The debate over the moratorium has meant that there are environmentalists on both sides of the bill. However, in many ways it boils down to an issue of tactics, but I welcome any opinions that differ with me about this. Pavley’s bill is better than the status quo, but it doesn’t get the state to the total ban where it should be in the short term until it is totally clear that this process is safe. That data just isn’t there at this point, and with the data connecting fracking and earthquakes<\/a>, safety seems to be in the background for the frackers.<\/p>\n

So if SB 4 passes, and puts a few limits and regulations on hydraulic fracturing, the big question is whether there will be momentum for another major piece of legislation in the future. It is the ongoing legislative conundrum of wait for the perfect or take what you can get. Clean Water Action supports the measure (PDF)<\/a>, but Credo, MoveOn and other groups are looking to kill the bill<\/a> unless it includes a moratorium. In related news, the California Democratic Party are on the record as supporting a moratorium<\/a>. However, the party hasn’t specifically said anything about the current debate.<\/p>\n

The bill will likely move forward within the next few weeks, but CREDO and others are calling for the bill to be shelved if there is no moratorium. We’ll know pretty soon which way this fight will go.<\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/b>: Lauren Steiner has an excellent post at CommonDreams<\/a> about why SB 4 is worse than no regulation at all. Here is an emotionally powerful quote on her reasoning:<\/p>\n

Instead, the flawed bill sets up a process for notification, disclosure, monitoring and permitting and simply calls for future regulations by other agencies and a scientific study.<\/p>\n

Telling someone when you’re going to frack, where you’re going to frack and what chemicals you will use, is like a murderer telling you he’s going to shoot you on your front porch at noon tomorrow using an AK-47.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, you’re still dead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the full post<\/a> for a more full perspective from the perspective of environmentalists seeking to block SB 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[86],"tags":[9859],"class_list":["post-15165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-86","tag-9859"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-3WB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}