California's Scary Oil and Gas Industry

By Andrew Grinberg, Oil and Gas Program Coordinator What could be scarier than ghosts, skeletons and witches? How about contaminated drinking water and runaway climate change? The oil industry is one of the spookiest things we've ever encountered.  They disguise themselves as the answer to our energy needs, while increasing greenhouse gas emissions and inducing more extreme climate change. What's worse is that Big Oil has hid its practices from the public, lurking in the shadows of loopholes and exemptions, free to pollute with little consequence. Even though the Legislature recently passed the first bill to regulate fracking and acidizing (SB 4), which will go into effect on Jan 1, 2014, drillers have kept on pumping vast amounts of water and chemicals into the ground. Since the bill passed on September 12, industry has fracked more than one well a day - and doesn't count wells being pumped full of hydrofluoric acid or other risky well stimulation techniques. Oil companies are continuing to risk our environment and health for corporate profits, and fuel our addiction to dirty fossil fuels, all without any safeguards in place. How’s that for scary? But like any scary story, just when you think it’s over… Here are some other things about the oil industry that freak us out:

• The fossil fuel industry receives more than $10 billion dollars a year in US taxpayer subsidies. That's a lot of money that could be spent on renewables, efficiency or public transit, but is instead handed out to the wealthiest and most polluting corporations in the world.
• The fossil fuel industry spends more than almost anyone on lobbying and campaign contributions. In California, no other industry can match the $45 million spent on lobbying in Sacramento since 2009.
• The oil and gas industry has earned exemptions or created loopholes in almost every major federal environmental law, from the Safe Drinking Water Act, to the Clean Air Act and more.
• US Congress has identified 750 different chemicals which are injected into the ground during hydraulic fracturing, 29 of which are hazardous.
• Hydrofluoric acid (HF) is commonly used to corrode California's geology and increase oil production. Despite the fact that HF is one of the most hazardous chemicals, our state regulators can't tell us when, where or how often this occurs.
• Fracking off the California coast has occurred over 200 times in the last 3 decades while state federal regulators were completely unaware.
• There are approximately 16 oil spills in the US...every single day!
• Prior to 2008, there have been over 1,000 cases of water contamination from oil and gas drilling activities documented by courts, and state or local governments.

We are at a critical point here in California. We have the opportunity keep the 15 billion barrels of dirty Monterey Shale oil in the ground. But if we are going to do that, we need to overcome the millions of dollars and misinformation from industry and hold our politicians accountable to the people. It's time we turned the tables and scared our politicians into action. Will you join us and urge Governor Brown to use his executive power to issue a moratorium on fracking, acidizing and well stimulation here in California?