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Fracking moratoriums and bans

Due to the highly contentious nature of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, calls for bans or at least severe limits on fracking are fairly common. These measures are frequently considered at the community, municipality, or county level, though states/provinces and nations have also proposed moratoriums or bans. A moratorium is a temporary freezing of new permit applications in order to give legislatures, gas operators, or regulatory bodies time to clarify, fix, prove, or decide something. Sometimes, a moratorium may lead to a ban, which is a more permanent freeze on permit application and renewal.

Some examples of passed moratoriums include Los Angeles[1] and several smaller communities in Colorado.[2] In the Marcellus Shale, New York State has a political history fraught with moratoriums and bans alike, whereas Pennsylvania is, on the whole, unrestricted. To see more, check the tables below. There have also been proposed instances for moratoriums on larger scales (state/national) that have failed, including California and Spain.

Marcellus Shale Measures

New York

The State of New York is one of the few that has successfully passed a statewide hydraulic fracturing moratorium, on grounds of requiring environmental impact review on December 13, 2010. This moratorium lasted for roughly 6 months, until June 1, 2011.[3]

To see local-level NY moratoriums and bans on the Marcellus and Utica shales, click "show" on the tables below.

[4]

Pennsylvania

[4]

West Virginia

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[4]

Ohio

[4]

California Moratorium Failure

The Governor of California, Jerry Brown supported fracking policies, however, his democratic party was in opposition. The protests, and events surrounding the democratic state convention, and mic-check, highlight the attempts to protest the Governor’s lack of response to the anti-fracking concerns. The protest attempts were unsuccessful, as of May 2014.[5]

Fractivists, and other democratic parties took the initiative to protest the blatant lack of response from Governors, regarding the concerns surrounding fracking. These protesting parties leveraged the fact that governor could be replaced when reelection time came again. In terms of attempting to get Governor Jerry Brown’s attention, some of the following methods were utilized:

  • Petitions
  • bird dogging
  • rallies
  • 100 public comments
  • 300 000 total petition
  • phone calls
  • e-mails
  • a letter sent to him by 20 of the nation’s top climate scientists
  • letter from his former advisers[6]

However, the events surrounding the Democratic State Convention were most highlighted and impactful.

Democratic State Convention: The Environmental Causus on March 7th, 2014

Ideas to protesting fracking, specific to the Democratic State Convention included:

  • “Occupy the general session”
  • “A massive sit-in”[6]
  • “An indoor march and rally”[6]
  • passing out “No Fracking” stickers”[6]
  • pre-convention rally
  • holding up signs during the speech
  • E-mails sent among the democratic party, highlighting concerns and opinions about protesting fracking during the convention:
    • E-mail #1: emphasized that the democratic party’s protests are not disrespectful, but that Jerry Brown himself had been disrespectful first by ignoring the demands of his party and the majority of the Californian people
    • E-mail #2: emphasized the importance of standing up for what is right. In this case, environmental protection
    • E-mail #3: emphasized the need to speak out against the Governor

Regardless of the opposing stance on fracking, people wanted to protect in a peaceful and respectful manner. Despite only a few delegates agreeing to take vocal stance, speeches were delivered by the following personnel:

Speaker Title Position on Fracking
Eric Bauman Vice Chairman of State Party Against fracking
Betty Yee Candidate for State Controller Extremely strong stance against fracking;

recognizes the harms it has had on communities; believed moratorium was needed immediately

Derek Cressman Candidate for Secretary of State Extremely strong stance against fracking, supports moratorium and ban against fracking. Has openly and strongly stated his position.
Mike McGuire Candidate for State Senate, SD2 Against fracking
Brian Caples Candidate for State Assembly, AD6 Against fracking
John Perez Candidate for State Controller Not an outright supporter for the fracking moratorium
Leeland Yee Gave weak argument against fracking. Believes it could be carried out safely
Alex Padilla Did not clearly state his position on fracking, although there is belief he supports fracking

The results of the convention included the resolution for 100% renewable energy in California to be passed with unanimous support

Democratic State Convention: The Governor’s speech on March 8th, 2014

A rally took place to further protest fracking. Delegates were prevented from bringing signs to protest, violating their first amendement rights. However, delegates that continued attempting to bring in signs almost got arrested. Those delegates included: Eric Bauman, and others. Hearing that the Vice Chair of the California Democratic Party nearly got arrested, John Burton, chair of the CDP allowed the delegates to bring in the signs. During Governor Brown’s speech, he was interrupted with 100 protestors holding anti-fracking signs and increasing chanting, this idea was known as the “mic-check”[6] and was successful in heckling Jerry Brown during his keynote speech at the convention by his own party members. The mic check included the following: “The first person would talk about the hypocrisy of a "Climate Leader" with a pro-fracking agenda. Once he was removed from the room, the second delegate would rise and continue the mic-check. Once he was removed from the room, another delegate would jump in, etc. This domino-like mic-check would continue until all interested delegates were removed.”[6] Other events protesting fracking, following the Convention and Rally included the March 15th rally in Sacramento, California. Fractivists came from places such as San Diego, Oregon, Colorado, Ohio, New York, etc. Media coverage was done by: CBS, ABC, and FOX 40.

References

  1. ↑ http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/02/28/city-council-to-vote-on-la-fracking-moratorium/
  2. ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/06/colorado-anti-fracking-_n_4226712.html
  3. ↑ http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/doc/Frack_Actions_NewYorkState.pdf
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Local Actions Against Fracking". Food & Water Watch. Retrieved 06/30/2014.  Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)Category:CS1 errors: dates
  5. ↑ http://rt.com/usa/162616-california-senate-kills-fracking-ban/
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/19/1284938/-The-California-Frack-Wars-Episode-IV-A-New-Hope#
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