Alameda County Against Fracking

Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, is a radical method of oil and gas extraction that involves high pressure injection of vast quantities of water, mixed with toxic chemicals, into deep underground. “The amount of water needed to drill and fracture each horizontal shale gas well generally ranges from about 2 - 4 million gallons...” Spent fracking water is commonly discarded into abandoned wells. A major consequence of fracking operations is the unavoidable leakage of methane, the main component of natural gas. Methane is at least 25 times more damaging than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas (GHG), which contributes to global climate change. We are witnessing increasingly severe climate disruptions, including storms, floods, droughts, and wild fires. “Burn natural gas and it warms your house. But let it leak from fracked wells or the melting Arctic and it warms the whole planet.”

Pressurized fracking fluids leach into and contaminate aquifers. Researchers at Duke University have found that household drinking water, that comes from wells within a kilometer of known fracking sites, can contain elevated levels of carcinogenic chemicals, and concentrations of methane that are typically six times greater than usual. The toxic chemicals and heavy metals associated with fracking operations, leakage and spills, can further contaminate soil, leach into crops, and harm livestock and wildlife. Residents living nearest to fracking operations suffer from constant noise and light pollution, endless diesel truck traffic, dangerous air pollution, and falling property values. Nationwide

For nearly a century, U.S. tax payers have subsidized the lucrative U.S. oil and gas industry, currently at $4.8 billion per year. In turn, Congress enjoys generous support from the industry, and allows lax fracking regulations, including exemptions from both the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. Our government has embraced and proclaimed fracking as the newest energy revolution. No such Federal subsidies exist for the true “green and clean” energy revolution, from renewable sources, including from wind, solar and geothermal. In the last ten years, fracking has expanded into many states, particularly Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Texas and Colorado. State governments likewise are mostly industry compliant. California

At the beginning of 2014, there were over 1,770 oil and gas production wells that are being fracked, mostly in Kern County. For now, that's just over one percent of the total production wells in California. Big Oil has plans to massively expand fracking in a huge section of California, roughly 1,750 square miles from Southern to Central California, from Modesto to San Diego County. Why not? California is the only one of ten oil-producing states that does not have an Oil Severance Tax, allowing Oil and Gas companies to avoid perhaps $2 billion in annual tax revenues for Californians. The prolific conversion of wells to fracking will perpetuate unfair competition for water rights, leaving farmers and agriculture at a bidding disadvantage, foretelling higher consumer prices. Unmitigated fracking will endanger more Californians, further jeopardizing our water purity and supplies, our health, safety, property and livelihoods. In California, efforts to ban or curb fracking statewide have been routinely thwarted by Big Oil money. Senate Bill 1132, which would have placed a temporary moratorium on fracking, narrowly failed in May 2014. Partisan Senators who voted NO received contributions averaging $25,277, which was 14.5 times that for only Democrats who voted YES. Governor Brown currently is supportive of efforts towards the expansion of this toxic industry. Local Campaigns

Given Federal and state governments ineptness and Oil and Gas Industry complicity, Californians must take matters into our own hands to ban or delay fracking at local levels. Cities and counties in California have broad authority to ban fracking, and we should persuade or pressure our elected officials to be accountable. In a 2014 poll, 68% of Californians favor a statewide moratorium on fracking. Growing local anti-fracking victories should be an effective strategy for also winning change at the state level. As awareness spreads and increasing numbers of cities and counties reject fracking, our state legislators and the governor should be compelled to yield to the will of the voting public to ultimately ban fracking in all of California. Hundreds of communities across the U.S., notably in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado and New Mexico, already are paving the way by successfully passing local bans or moratoriums on fracking. Now it's up to US. We must band together to ban fracking now. Visit CaliforniansAgainstFracking.org to find your local grassroots organization and petitions to sign. Help keep our tap water flame free.