Beverly Hills Pursues a Ban on Fracking: Another City in California Moves to Stop Fracking

“Fracking is a new form of oil drilling that is dirty and dangerous, said Dan Jacobson, Legislative Director for Environment California. It is time for our state leaders to stop fracking right now!”

Over the past decade, the oil and gas industry has integrated two technologies - hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling- in a highly polluting attempt to release oil and gas in underground rock formations across the United States. Fracking is already underway in 17 states in addition to California, with key impacts of fracking being the production of wastewater, water use, chemicals use, air pollution, land damage and global warming emissions. Two recent studies highlighted the dangers of fracking. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that previous EPA data on methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, had greatly underestimated the amount of methane released by well sites, with new data showing that methane released from wells was occurring at a rate 100 to 1000 times greater than previously estimated[1]. Another study has found increasing evidence that fracking may be the cause of some earthquakes, a major cause of concern in California[2].

According to the Beverly Hills Courier the ordinance was passed unanimously by the Beverly Hills City Council and about 40 people attended the meeting to voice their support. The only opposition during the meeting came from the Director of Regional Affairs for the California Independent Petroleum Association.

[1] “Toward a better understanding and quantification of methane emissions from shale gas development” http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/04/10/1316546111

[2] “Does fracking cause quakes? California needs to know.” http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-fracking-20140420,0,4013877.story#axzz2zjS46PcN


http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/news/cae/beverly-hills-pursues-ban-fracking