A bill introduced earlier this year by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, that would phase out fracking for oil in California was voted down by a Senate committee.
Senate Bill 467, which would have also created a buffer zone around oil extraction sites to ensure they are not near homes, schools or other community locations, only got three of the five votes needed from the state Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee to move forward.
Wiener and his co-author on the bill, state Sen. Monique Limon, D-Santa Barbara, had introduced the bill in February and issued a joint statement Tuesday following its failure to pass the Senate committee.
“While we’re extremely disappointed by the Committee’s rejection of SB 467, we’re inspired by the coalition behind this critical climate and public health measure. Frontline communities of color stood up for their families and against drilling practices that severely harm people’s health,” the two state senators said in the statement.
“While we saw this effort defeated today, this issue isn’t going away. We’ll continue to fight for aggressive climate action, against harmful drilling, and for the health of our communities,” Wiener and Limon said.
Among the specifics of the bill were stopping the issuance or renewal of permits for hydraulic fracturing — also known as fracking — and other specified oil extraction methods starting in 2022 and prohibiting those practices in 2027, along with prohibiting all new or renewed oil or gas extraction permits within 2,500 feet of homes, schools, health care facilities or long-term care institutions by 2022.
Wiener’s office said nearly 7.5 million Californians live within a mile of an oil or gas well and more than 2 million live within a mile of an operational well, and that states like Texas and Oklahoma have buffer zones enacted around oil extraction sites while California does not. The state Legislature considered a bill last year proposing setbacks for those sites but it also got voted down.
17 comments
wow! maybe gas prices won’t go up despite the best efforts of the dems and the left
They talk the big green game but follow the money anyway. They are all crooks and we are their saps.
What has following the money revealed to you about Sen. Scott Wiener who proposed the bill?
Fracking in a state that has tons of fault lines from our major ones to even the little ones seems completely nuts to me.
This right here. I am not a climate change alarmist, so that angle is less of an issue to me. But the connection between fracking, deep disposal wells, and increases in seismic activity is well documented. Fracking in the most techtonically active state is just a bad idea. Look at what is going on in Oklahoma and ask if we want to risk that here.
On a side note, a geologist that mapped the Salton sea seabed for faults theorizes that the reason they have not had the big one yet in the SA fault is because the filling of the Salton in the early 1900s added weight to the whole system, meaning the fault has to build even more stress to overcome it and fail. Hydraulic pressures and earthquakes are a bad thing to play with
Frontline communities of color stood up for their families and against drilling practices that severely harm people’s health
enter hypcrisy
states like Texas and Oklahoma have buffer zones enacted around oil extraction sites while California does not
ok weiner since when has commifornia ever wanted to be like texas
“People of color” is in itself hypocrisy!
Most of these “people…” are not knowledgeable enough to understand or even determine what is unhealthy or the fact that it could stress existing fault plates.
Without some fossil fuel how do they plan to journey to a protest venue or even go to work since they will require mass transit to be fossil-free transport!!!
D**n Republicans! Continuing 45’s drive to ruin America’s natural beauty, and endangering California’s citizen’s health.
The Dems have complete control of our state. Republicans had nothing to do with this. You just like to blame Trump for everything. Typical irrational statement from a no nothing Democrat.
Press release: “Democrats vote to stop the bill.”
JazzyMan: “Trump wants to destroy our environment!….and he hates black people too!”
Give it a rest bruh…Your guy is in office and your people run this state.
It was a mixture. From the AP article:
“Democratic Sen. Susan Eggman of Stockton joined two Republicans in voting against the bill, while two other Democrats — Robert Hertzberg of Van Nuys and Ben Hueso of Logan Heights — did not vote.”
So you have one East Bay Democrat and two Southern California Democrats who didn’t support this effort. Pretty disappointing.
Now Chuq, you shouldn’t be ruining JazzMan’s rant with actual facts. Shame on you.
Jazzman
I know math is difficult but Democrats hold a state trifecta in California. They control the Senate, Assembly and Governorship.
They maintain a supermajority in the Assembly and in the Senate. Democratic leadership determine committee leadership and committee membership.
So tell me again how “D**n Republicans” managed to out vote the D** Democrats who control everything?
Scott Weiner = California’s one-man destruction band.
Wiener is a big weener.
I agree back off Trump.
The idiots who are running our state and country are out to lunch and just worried about their lifetime benefits we have to pay. Cutbacks should start there and rip them all a new one.
Since Biden took over gas prices out of site and tax increases lining up daily.
So whatever happened to Hunter Biden and his antics that was so undeniably hidden before the election and Cuomo who is a repetitive women handler???
Lets get real for a change.
You can’t fix stupid. The perfect slogan for Biden and his fellow Dems.
senator weiner, the guy who decreased penalties for pedophiles
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