Despite what the scholarly Yogi Berra once said – “The future is the most difficult of all to predict” – Culver City seers are eager risk-takers. Word in the corridors of City Hall this morning, 30 hours after the latest City Council meeting, is that a moratorium or ban on the oil drilling method called fracking is not likely to ever materialize.
That was not the impression the five Council members left late Monday evening with a large and probably unanimously anti-fracking crowd in Council Chambers.
The appearance of violin-playing harmony was illusory, knowledgeable people are saying.
“There are many fewer knee-jerk anti-fracking members on the Council than you may think,” a source told the newspaper.
“When the oil drilling ordinance is presented to the Council later this year, they will be wrestling to get to a middle ground. Look closely at what they said Monday night. The debate was not really whether to support a ban or a moratorium. From watching them and knowing how they reason, I think the ‘if’ part is as open-ended as the ‘when’ part.
“The Council seems united in wanting to see regulations that protect the public health and safety. When the rubber meets the road, though, there are going to be differences of opinion and philosophy as to what that means.
“The majority of the City Council does not appear to be prepared to outlaw the practice of oil drilling, which is what the Monday night crowd would advocate. You heard people tell the Council that Culver City needs to ban oil drilling, period, not just fracking.”
When the yawning meeting ended at 1 a.m. yesterday, hardly anything substantive had been decided.
