[img]1305|right|Andy Weissman||no_popup[/img]The happiest news from the world of anti-fracking came with this morning’s report that the City of Carson has approved a 45-day moratorium on the controversial oil drilling method.
While Carson leaders were quoted as claiming to be the first municipality in the state to have done so, City Councilman Andy Weissman this afternoon held up the Stop sign.
“Carson is considering today the very same things we were five years ago,” he told the newspaper.
Culver City indeed imposed the maximum allowable moratorium in 2009 (http://www.thefrontpageonline.com/new/articles1-6769/CulverCityOilDrillingMoratoriumUpheldinCourt) and later extended it.
Presently, there is no moratorium, and the subject is close to being an issue in the final days of the City Council campaign that is racing toward Election Day on April 8.
Fracking is on Monday evening’s 7 o’clock City Council agenda in Council Chambers.
The candidates were asked this morning how Culver City should respond to Carson’s move.
Said Mayor Jeff Cooper:
“We have already directed staff to return to us with options for a moratorium or a ban. I look forward to hearing from the public and discussing these options with staff and my colleagues on Council as to the most effective direction to take.
I am glad that a real coalition against that dangerous practice is now coming together. There's no race to be first. What we want to do is make a meaningful change, and I continue to believe the best way for us to do that is together as a powerful coalition, so whether we're first or 50th, the goal is to stop fracking, and that's what we're all working toward.
“I, for one, have always advocated a moratorium and/or a ban on fracking. I am glad that a real coalition against that dangerous practice is coming together.
“There's no race to be first. What we want to do is make a meaningful change. I continue to believe the best way for us to do that is together as a powerful coalition.
“Whether we are first or 50th, the goal is to stop fracking. That is what we are all working toward.”
When Councilman Jim Clarke was polled as to how City Hall should respond to Carson’s move, he said, pithily:
“By not being the first to get sued by the oil companies and (the state agency known as) DOGGR.”
