Trump administration exploring possibility of opening up California land to fracking
The Trump administration this week took the preliminary steps toward opening around 1.6 million acres of public land in California to hydraulic fracturing and oil drilling.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on Wednesday explained in a notice to the Federal Register that it will explore the impact of fracking in the state, setting off alarm bells among environmentalists.
“[T]his document announces the beginning of the scoping process and seeks public input on issues and planning criteria related to hydraulic fracturing,” the notice reads.
Specifically, BLM will prepare a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to determine what environmental impacts the technology will have on the region.
The land in question includes “approximately 400,000 acres of public land and an additional 1.2 million acres of Federal mineral estate,” according to the agency, and spans across multiple counties including Fresno, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura.
Fracking is a technique by which water, sand and additives are injected deep into the ground at high pressures to crack open rocks and release the oil or gas trapped inside. It’s led to drilling booms in places like Texas, North Dakota and Pennsylvania.
Proponents argue that it’s a safe technology that is increasing America’s energy independence and creating jobs, while opponents say it poses environmental risks and recklessly promotes an energy policy centered around fossil fuels instead of alternative energy resources.
“This step toward opening our beautiful public lands to fracking and drilling is part of the Trump administration’s war on California,” said Clare Lakewood, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We desperately need to keep these dirty fossil fuels in the ground. But Trump is hell-bent on sacrificing our health, wildlife and climate to profit big polluters.”
The administration has already faced backlash over similar moves. This spring, for example, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke postponed a sale for leasing public lands for drilling near Livingston, Montana, following heavy outrage due to its proximity to Yellowstone National Park.
“I’ve always said there are places where it is appropriate to develop and where it’s not. This area certainly deserves more study, and appropriately we have decided to defer the sale,” Zinke responded in a March statement.
More broadly, the development is just the latest high-profile fight between California and the Trump administration, as the state has challenged the president’s agenda on nearly every hot button issue, including immigration, climate change and health care.
And just last week, President Trump issued a series of tweets lambasting the state’s environmental regulations, claiming that the rules are hindering the ability to effectively fight wildfires, remarks that drew wide condemnation from state officials.
20 comments
Write a comment
Related Articles
Gov. Brown maintains sizable fundraising lead over GOP opponents
California Governor Jerry Brown begins his re-election campaign with $17 million in the bank. The incumbent Democrat governor, according to state disclosure
Poll: Republican gubernatorial candidates would perform well behind Democrat Newsom
Good news for California Republicans: In a field of nine candidates for the 2018 gubernatorial race, they have two of
Is the Budget Kabuki Dance Ending?
MARCH 31, 2011 By KATY GRIMES The budget dance between the Republican legislators and Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown appears to
This is an example of a technology that we can do without.
California is divided into two geological regions: Continental Shelf and the Pacific Plate. They are divided by the mighty San Andreas Fault.
California is also a network of other major and minor faults, and fracture lines, and potential seismic activity. Earthquake scientists will tell you there isn’t one square inch of our State that is not at any time as likely to be the epicenter of an earthquake as any other.
And, down below the surface, scattered among the seismic zones is our underground water supply. It is stored in reservoirs that are fed by rainfall and run-off. Aquifers bring that water to the surface when the water table is high.
Fracking anywhere in California could easily destabilize the land we live on and cause unnecessary or counterproductive earthquake activity. It could also cause underground water supplies that we rely on to disappear.
Any technology that causes permanent damage to the land is foolish. I hope people will wake up and smell the stink of money.
Not to be punny, but if fracking is a sign of Progress, then progress isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.
Those who believe money is more important than the land we live on will one day wake up in a hell of their own creation.
Just for the record, I am also against solar panels because the technology is damaging to the environment, wind-generated electricity because it is damaging to birds, hydrogen-powered vehiciles because they are dangerous, self-driving vehicles because they cannot be made foolproof, and robots that replace human beings except for dangerous jobs.
California is experiencing a short fall in water containment. The ability to increase oil production by Fracking consumes a vast amount of water; Millions of gallons per well. We can drink water, drinking petroleum is a problem.
Thank you. There are so many things wrong with this proposal, who can think of them all?
Comrades
You want choo choo
Frackee Frackee
Comrade Queeg,
Aha! Methinks ye hast stumbled into the perfect argument against both.
Yeah, once in a while Capt Queeg gets it right and those ball bearings seem to click the right way.
Most of his best stuff comes working for Uly Uhaul out at the rental yard in Hemet. He likes to weld on the broken down trailers without a welding helmet while dropping LSD at the same time.
Queegster– THIS is possibly your best post to the Doomera, well, gosh, ever! Congrats!
Thks Teddy , The Sage of Doomerville!
Ulysses sends regards.
He is sweating like a aged prize fighter using his Zorro whip getting impatient/uncouth doomers in the usual morning trailer selection line up.
The work though rewarding is gruesome around here.
I would take the Choo Choo over the Frackee everytime!
Comrade. Rickitteee
Thanks for promotion.
Uli just laughed. No one around cares about anything around here but money and our dogs Vicious and Baby.
We have the best welder gear from Bellarooooos. Russian WW 2 stuff. OSHA shook their head….
We are in a drug free zone. Such Fake News Ricketts….
and doomers….we have specials on sisal rope from Paraguay this week until sold out.
Uli treats you “right”.
This is sure to get the Greens al stired up wait for the usial Junk Mail from some Eco-Wacko group urging you to send in a $500 donation and mail out those postcards to your Conress Critter and senator all about this so called Enviromentaly sensitive land or this Fragile Earth Delicate Balance of Nature poppycock wait for the Sierra Clugs Legal Defense Fund CBD and NRDC to file stupid lawsuits and Hollywood Airheads like Robert Redford Leonardo DiCaprio and others their usial amount of Bull kaka
Here ya go silly sea duck
Pumping 600 chemicals at high pressure below the water table in areas near the largest earthquake fault in the northern hemisphere…., what could possibly go wrong?a
Teddy Unsteady: If pumping chemicals into the largest fault in the Northern hemisphere could cause the San Andreas to rupture with a 10.0 quake and result in coastal California from San Francisco to LA to slide into the Pacific, then what sane person could be against it?
Frackee, frackee, please make large crackee,crackee!
good point ricky–
you seem like you like chemical exposure…..mmmmmm…frackee frackee crackee crackee for rickee chemee—- I bet your pre existing condition is a doooooooozie!
Hey, nothing bad ever happens here. This is California! I used to live on top of the San Andreas Fault and nothing bad ever happened to me!
I just found out that if you dig a hole deep enough to rupture an aquifer, you might end up with no water for your wells. Think about it–the tunnel through the San Gabriels for the high-speed rail, the Delta tunnels, and now…fracking!
So, fracking along the San Andreas (or any of the million other seismic features of California) could be the beginning of an exciting new phase of our history.
I, for one, wouldn’t want to miss it for the world. I would like a box seat next to the action. I’ll have my water delivered by Amazin.com drones directly.
Though, I do worry about those 600 chemicals. Do I want to know what they are and what they do and why I shouldn’t bother about this?
Ricky
You is one hurting dude……my business plan depends on squeezing out the remaining doomers near the coast and assisting their moves to Redd-Est Neck Nirvana….jug whistling West Virginans won’t be happy.
Now, now, Uly. You know I’m only looking out your bottom line. Peddling trailers to these run of the mill doomers is a failed business model. As more move out of state fleeing the liberal tyranny, your customer base grows ever smaller.
I was trying to revive your business by appealing to a whole new class of Doomers like Uncle Teddy. These paranoiac ex-hippies are terrified of ‘the big one’ ripping the San Andreas fault and causing coastal Cali to slide into the sea. Think of the possibilities of a whole new class of New Age Doomers. Now not all will need to rent your crappy trailers held together with Queeg’s slapdash welding. Some, like Teddy still have their dusty, flower power, paisley covered VW vans rusting away in the garage so they could use those if they can get them started. Still enough might need your services to keep the rental yard chain link gates open. Your land sharks, Vicious and Baby cannot live on trespassers alone you know
Remember, as a long term observer of California politics, I’m always here to help anytime!
Unwritten rules of CWD:
we get one weak article per week to chew on….
No tomes by troubled doomers….
Teddy Is infallible on every one of his posts…
Queeg is the Renaissance Man who wears a Farmer MAGA green hat backwards, the ultimate PR out in the rental yard. He even gives free autographs. Bless him.
Uly…so many commuter worn out Calif. residents… we will never run out of customers.
By demand…Technicolor pictures of Baby and Vicious come with each doomer travel packet.
That is not the reason Queeg wears his MAGA hat backwards.
Being a compassionate man, he simply wants to warn potential love interests that “My Azz Got AIDS.”
Pack and Ship has laid it all out here– On behalf of the Doomera ™, I thank you….