Surprise! Big Oil wants another fracking exemption.

By Andrew Grinberg, Oil and Gas Program Coordinator As the California Legislature heads into the final days of the 2013 session, the lone remaining bill to address fracking, SB 4 will soon meet its fate. Senator Fran Pavley, the environmental champion and author of the bill has crafted a strong, yet balanced regulatory bill focused on disclosure, monitoring and transparency. With a growing body of evidence from around the country of water, air, community and climate damage from fracking and other oil production, California needs the basic safeguards put forward in this bill, like disclosure of chemicals, groundwater monitoring and environmental review prior to fracking and acidizing. As has become far too commonplace, oil industry lobbyists are making a classic End-of-the-Legislative session move to not only kill an important bill, but also weaken our state’s landmark environmental law: the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).  Big Oil is asking lawmakers to reject SB 4 unless their industry receives a special exemption to frack and acidize any or all of the roughly 50,000 existing oil and gas wells in the state without going through the CEQA process. A massive exemption from our top environmental law is the last thing the state should consider for an industry with such a dismal history of environmental compliance. Big Oil has consistently caused the biggest man-made environmental disasters we have ever seen; from the spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969, to the Exxon Valdez spill, to the Deep Water Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2012 alone, over 6,000 oil spills occurred in the US, an average of 16 per day. With a track record like that, the oil industry should be subject to the same, if not higher standards as everyone else. Yet, Big Oil consistently asks for and receives undeserved preferential treatment. Oil companies receive $10 billion in federal subsidies every year, despite already turning the largest profits in the world. This is the industry that has written loopholes and exemptions into numerous federal laws, including the Safe Drinking Water Act (known as the Halliburton loophole), portions of the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and federal toxic waste laws. This is the industry that has fracked in California while our state regulators have turned the other way, failing to even monitor the practice for decades. The Western States Petroleum Association, which represents the most profitable companies in the world, is the biggest spender in the Capitol; doling out $2.3 million in lobbying expenses in the first half of 2013, and successfully killing every other fracking related bill introduced in this session. Once again, industry is leveraging its enormous resources in an attempt to significantly weaken or kill SB 4. Industry argues that requiring environmental review would mean a de facto moratorium on fracking and acidizing in California. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. While a moratorium is a sensible policy, SB 4 would not stop fracking and acidizing in California. It would simply give communities the information they need about drilling to protect themselves. The oil industry’s request for more preferential treatment is an affront to all Californians who care about the environment and our health and safety.  Everyone should have to play by the same rules. An exemption from CEQA for one of the dirtiest industries in the world would be laughable, if the potential consequences of that exemption were not so dire. The sad reality is that for too long, volumes of evidence have been ignored when developing policies for the oil and gas industry. SB 4 can change that in California. SB 4 is a moderate and sensible bill based on the basic principle that the public has a right to know about activities that will impact their community, their health and their environment. California Legislators have a clear choice: cave to industry’s constant push for special treatment, or stand up to Big Oil and vote for accountability. Support SB 4 today!