Third in a series
Re “Gless Claims County Survey Motivation Was for Show”
In the process of blistering the County’s Inglewood Oil Field Health Survey, environmental activist Gary Gless took a swipe at the increasingly maligned state Assembly Bill 972 that is intended to remotely restore order to drilling in the summer-long fracking controversy.
“If you were to really look at 972,” said Mr. Gless of the Citizens for a Safe Coalition, “you could almost think that PXP wrote it. It gives (the oil company) too much leeway.”
Initially celebrated as a welcome detriment against alleged drilling dangers, the bill has drawn more critics than supporters the longer it lingers in public view.
South Bay Assemblyperson Betsy Butler authored the bill (see below) that is intended to build a dam against fracking until permanent regulations are put in place.
“What we requested in the Butler bill,” said the frustrated Mr. Gless, “is to have a third party for independent oversight.
“We just came back from Sacramento (last Wednesday night), and the people up there are just as outraged about the fracking issue.”
One of the most stentorian voices against expanded oil field activities, Mr. Gless said firmly that 972 “is not worth passing” in late August when it is expected to be signed by Gov. Brown.
Just Their Type
“This is a bill that the oil industry would love to have. Basically, it says ‘if we can do our own regulations, we are okay.’
“We have seen in the past that those kinds of regulations do not work. They have failed the community over and over.
“There is no enforcement of regulations. DOGGR (the state Dept. of Gas and Geothermal Resources) doesn’t have the manpower to even follow up or to see what is going on. They have no idea what is being done. They will say ‘we have no evidence of recorded contamination’ because they never have looked. They don’t even know where or whether any fracking has been done.”
The time has passed for a moratorium on fracking, says Mr. Gless. He urges a ban as soon as it can be executed.
Follow the Culver City Lead
“Others should do what the City Council in Culver City has done. They only have 10 percent skin in this game (10 percent of the Inglewood Oil Field), and they are saying, ‘We are banning until you guys show us you can do it right.’
“I was hoping that Mark (County Supervisor Ridley-Thomas), who has 90 percent of the oil field under his responsibility, that he would take the kind of leadership role that Culver City did. But he has not.”
Does Mr. Gless have a theory about why?
He did not take long to answer.
“You can look at his (every January) Empowerment Congress.
“He gets funding for it from Chevron,” Mr. Gless said with irony.
“So I don’t know.
What About His Constituents?
“We can make our own assumptions about why he is doing the position he is doing. I would have thought, I would have hoped, that the concerns of communities…
“I mean, this is nationwide. Fracking bans are going up because the science is not there. The science that is there shows damage. We are going to be using billions of gallons of water for fracking in California.
“We had just a little bit of an earthquake the other day. Fracking causes earthquakes. They are injecting wells into areas that never have had earthquakes.
“I could not say there is a relation between fracking and this particular earthquake. But who is to say the next quake won’t be? All seismic events trigger a larger one.
“We are sitting right on top of a 7.4 here. If that’s not something to be leery of –this type of practice triggers earthquakes in areas where they don’t have earthquakes – what are we doing drilling here on our fault line?”
Assembly Bill 972
Under existing law, the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources in the Department of Conservation regulates the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of oil and gas wells in the state. The State Oil and Gas Supervisor supervises the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of wells and the operation, maintenance, and removal or abandonment of tanks and facilities related to oil and gas production within an oil and gas field regarding safety and environmental damage. Existing law requires an operator of a well, before commencing the work of drilling the well, to obtain approval from the State Oil and Gas Supervisor or a district deputy. This bill would, until regulations governing hydraulic fracturing have been adopted, prohibit the supervisor and the district deputy from approving the drilling of a well in which hydraulic fracturing, as defined, is used or is proposed to be used in the production of oil and gas. This bill would define, among others, the terms hydraulic fracturing fluid and proppants.
