Coastal Comm'n Staffer Indicates Agency Now Asserts Regulatory, Permit-Granting Authority Over Offshore Hydraulic Fracturing ("Fracking") Off Long Beach Shoreline, KPCC/89.3 Says
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(July 23, 2015) -- KPCC/89.3 FM was first to report earlier today (July 23) that the CA Coastal Commission is asserting regulatory permit-granting authority over offshore hydraulic fracturing ("fracking.") In a story by reporter Molly Peterson, the station indicates that a Coastal Commission staffer contends Long Beach City Hall and its contracted operator must seek coastal development permits for fracking in areas off the coast of Long Beach. To access KPCC's report, click here.
Fracking injects chemicals and other materials at high pressure into the earth to crack rocks and free up oil for extraction. The City of Long Beach and the state of CA both derive revenue from oil extracted in offshore Long Beach. The state owns the tidelands; the City conducts specified activities in the tidelands as the state's trustee; the city hired a contractor to conduct the oil extraction. The city-hired contractor obtained permit approval from the CA Dept. of Conservation's Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources to conduct fracking between August and December.
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As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, fracking opponents urged the Long Beach City Council on July 14 to stop plans to conduct the process on a number of sites, the first in state waters since 2013, in areas under City of Long Beach control on or near the oil islands off LB's shore. LBREPORT.com makes their testimony available with quick-launch audio below.
One Long Beach City Councilmember, Roberto Uranga, is currently a member of the CA Coastal Commission...and as LBREPORT.com reported (first again, July 10), Uranga acknowledged at the July 8, 2015 Coastal Commission meeting that he tried to appoint Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia as his voting Coastal Commission alternate -- after Garcia was required to step down from the Coastal Commission under operation of state law after he was elected LB's non-voting Mayor. (Commissioner Uranga's said his attempt to name Garcia as his alternate is currently in a "holding pattern" pending possible enactment of SB 798, which would let Garcia [and some other Mayors who don't have voting authority] sit on the Commission.)
To date, LB's Dem Mayor and Dem majority City Council have been silent on the statewide controversy over fracking. Governor Brown has the Dem majority state legislature have efused to enact a moratorium on fracking. Instead, state lawmakers enacted legislation (SB 4, took effect Jan. 2014) that requires disclosure of the types of chemicals used and created regulations governing fracking...but allows fracking to continue.
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The Center for Biological Diversity, Stop Fracking Long Beach and South Bay 350, and a number of local residents, acknowledge that fracking has been conducted for many years, but note that the latest series will take place just weeks after the Refugio oil spill near Santa Barbara.
Fracking opponents say the process risks an oil spill and can kill or harm marine life...and they cite a recent report by the CA Council on Science and Technology which concluded that there's inadequate information about more than half the chemicals used in fracking, including toxicity and risks to the environment and public health. To view the full report, click here.
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The anti-fracking groups seek, in effect, to push the policy-setting City Council to take a public position opposed to fracking, backed by action to stop fracking conducted with the City's approval on property under the City's control.
