Californians Against Fracking Launch Coordinated Protests Around State 30th May

 

Oppo­nents of a con­tro­ver­sial method of extract­ing oil and gas will deliv­er peti­tions to law­mak­ers around Cal­i­for­nia on Thurs­day urg­ing them to lim­it or ban the con­tro­ver­sial prac­tice.

 

Oppo­nents of a con­tro­ver­sial method of extract­ing oil and gas will deliv­er peti­tions to law­mak­ers around Cal­i­for­nia on Thurs­day urg­ing them to lim­it or ban the con­tro­ver­sial prac­tice.

Groups against frack­ing say the method could dam­age ground­wa­ter sup­plies and harm unspoiled habi­tat for native ani­mals like the kit fox.

Orga­niz­ers say around 70 groups are involved in the coor­di­nat­ed effort. One of the largest, MoveOn.org, plans to deliv­er peti­tions to a dozen assem­bly mem­bers ask­ing for lim­its on the oil extrac­tion method. The group is also orga­niz­ing protests in Sacra­men­to, San Jose, San Diego, San Ramon, and Los Altos, among oth­er places.

Food and Water Watch and the Cen­ter for Bio­log­i­cal Diver­si­ty are plan­ning sim­i­lar march­es in San Fran­cis­co and here in Los Ange­les. Doc­u­men­tary film­mak­er Josh Fox, who direct­ed “Gasland,” will join activists as they protest out­side Gov­er­nor Brown’s Los Ange­les office on Spring Street.

The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment esti­mates that as much as 15 mil­lion bar­rels of oil and gas are trapped in a rock for­ma­tion that sprawls across south­ern and cen­tral Cal­i­for­nia called the Mon­terey Shale. Petro­le­um com­pa­nies say break­ing open that rock will unleash an eco­nom­ic boom, includ­ing fuel, jobs and tax rev­enue.