Grim statewide news for the Culver City/Baldwin Hills seams-bursting anti-fracking community:
When the Wall Street Journal drilled down on last week’s repudiation of Assemblyperson Holly Mitchell’s (D-Culver City) bill to put a temporary lid on fracking, the newspaper made several curious findings, depressing for anti-frackers.
The Journal’s examination of the 37-24 margin of loss in the overwhelmingly Democratic state Legislature showed there was a poor vs. wealthy divide and that Ms. Mitchell was isolated by her own caucus.
Democrat legislators have concluded that backing anti-fracking regulations not only is toxic, they will run mercurially to avoid it.
A dozen Democrats joined 25 Republicans, and the punch line is that 18 unbrave Democrats dived under their desks and said they would prefer to abstain.
The Journal said most of the moratorium backing came from the wealthy, white coastal districts, from Santa Monica-Malibu to the Bay Area.
Heart of the opposition was from the Central Valley, “areas that are poor and minority, with rates of unemployment of 12 percent or more.”
Of the seven black Democrats In the Assembly, all six named Mitchell deserted her. Courageous ones voted against the moratorium. The chickens among them went into hiding.
The point: Even temporarily banning fracking is a jobs issue.
“Though the Assembly Speaker (John Perez) is Hispanic, most of the rank-and-file Latino Democrats refused to vote for the ban.”
One-third of active California wells are fracking, the California Independent Petroleum Assn., said in Saturday’s Journal.
Why? One likely explanation:
“A moratorium would throw thousands of Californians out of work, and not those in Beverly Hills. Oil and gas jobs typically pay salaries that range from $50,000 to $100,000 a year, and many of them are unionized.”
For anti-frackers, it is time for a strategy adjustment.
