Feature Archives

The federal government announced on August 2 the start of two new analyses of fracking risks to California public lands. The Bureau of Land Management will begin developing a new “environmental impact statement” for fracking in Central California, along with a statewide independent scientific assessment of the dangerous oil extraction process. Completion of the environmental impact statement and scientific review are likely to take more than a year.

On August 3, over 2,000 people marched from the Richmond BART station to Chevron's Richmond refinery. Over 200 people were arrested at a sit-in at the gate and released on the scene. There will be a protest on the one-year anniversary of the explosion on August 6 at Richmond Civic Center Plaza. On August 17, the coalition that organized the action will meet at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists.

Governor Brown has proposed building two massive $50 billion water tunnels to divert the Sacramento River to corporate interests in the Central Valley. Fracking opponents say the peripheral tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta could play a role in increasing fracking in California, so that oil companies and huge agribusinesses can make even more profits.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit on July 10 challenging San Benito County’s approval of a major new oil development in the Salinas Valley watershed. The 15 new oil wells approved by the county last month will use cyclic steam injection, a dangerous and polluting form of oil extraction that targets heavy crude. The new wells would be located in an area used by California condors, which are critically endangered, along with other wildlife.

The Gill Tract in Albany has been a battleground in recent years as the University of California's development plans have met repeated resistance from Occupy the Farm and others fighting for land sovereignty. The tract was first occupied and farmed in 2012, providing hundreds of pounds of free produce to local communities. This year, in the space of nine days in May, occupiers broke ground, establishing a new urban farm, and replanted the field twice. Each time the UC police ploughed over the seedlings. Currently, Occupy the Farm is launching a pressure campaign against Sprouts Farmers Market, a supermarket chain looking to build on the land.

A plan by Warren Buffett’s PacifiCorp to apply chemicals to kill toxic blue-green algae on the Klamath River for the second year in a row has ignited opposition by North Coast Indian Tribes and river users. The Hoopa Valley Tribe and river users cite studies from 2012 that show killing the algae actually releases the algae toxin, microcystin, at a time of year when people are swimming, wading, rafting and fishing in the Klamath River.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit on June 19 against the California Department of Parks and Recreation for its failure to protect an endangered seabird, the Marbled Murrelet, under the new management plan for Big Basin Redwoods State Park in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains. The suit, filed in California Superior Court in Santa Cruz county, challenges the department’s plans to expand visitor facilities in or near essential nesting habitat.