Ocean fracking should be no surprise, 'Petro Princess’ oversaw creation of marine protected areas
By Dan Bacher | August 20, 2013 The California Coastal Commission, under intense pressure from legislators and environmental a...
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2013/08/ocean-fracking-should-be-no-surprise.html
By Dan Bacher | August 20, 2013
The
California Coastal Commission, under intense pressure from legislators
and environmental activists, pledged Thursday, August 15 at its meeting
in Santa Cruz to investigate reports of fracking (hydraulic fracturing)
for oil in ocean waters in the Santa Barbara Channel.
"Blindsided
by revelations of fracking in waters off the coast of California, the
state's Coastal Commission on Thursday vowed an investigation into the
controversial practice, including what powers the agency has to regulate
it, “ according to Jason Hoppin, Santa Cruz Sentinel reporter.
"We
do not yet understand the extent of fracking in federal or state
waters, nor fully understand its risks," said Coastal Commission Deputy
Director Allison Dettmer, who will lead the investigation.
"Blindsided"
by "revelations" of fracking? How can that be possible when the Coastal
Commission, Fish and Game Commission and other state regulators failed
to question the leadership role of a big oil lobbyist, nicknamed the
"Petro Princess" by anti-fracking activists, in the corrupt Marine Life
Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative to create alleged "marine protected
areas?"
State
officials and representatives of corporate "environmental" NGOs
shamelessly embraced Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western
States Petroleum Association (WSPA), as a "marine guardian."
Reheis-Boyd,
who lobbies relentlessly for increased fracking in California, the
construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and the evisceration of
environmental laws, served as the CHAIR of the MLPA Initiative Blue
Ribbon Task Force to create so-called "marine protected areas" in
Southern California. She also served on the MLPA task forces for the
Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast.
She
oversaw the creation of questionable "marine protected areas" that fail
to protect the ocean from fracking and oil drilling, pollution,
military testing, wind and wave energy projects and all human impacts on
the ocean other than fishing and gathering.
I'm glad that the Commission is calling for an investigation of offshore fracking now - and I support that investigation.
However,
I must ask where were they when grassroots environmentalists,
recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Tribal members and advocates
of transparency in government were calling for an investigation of
conflicts of interest, corruption and the violation of state, federal
and international laws under the privately-funded MLPA Initiative?
"We
take our obligation to protect the marine environment very seriously
and we will be looking at this very carefully," claimed Charles Lester,
executive director of the Coastal Commission.
If
the Commission wants to really show that they take their obligation
“very seriously,” they should include in their fracking investigation a
probe of Reheis-Boyd’s role in creating so-called “marine reserves” that
fail to protect the ocean from fracking, oil drilling, pollution and
all other human impacts on our coastal waters than sustainable fishing
and gathering.
After
that probe is conducted, they should call for a independent and
thorough investigation of the conflicts of interest, corruption and
violation of laws under the MLPA Initiative.
In
2009, then California Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez (D-Shafter)
had planned to conduct a Senate Oversight Hearing about conflicts of
interest and “mission creep” in the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA)
Initiative process.
He
said that the funding of the MLPA Initiative by a private entity, the
Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, “really has to be looked at," along
with other potential conflicts of interest.
“We
have to look at all of the relationships,” said Florez. “Nobody thought
the MLPA would become a process where the coast is closed first and the
science is done later. Politics, not policy, have led this issue."
However,
Florez' attempt to investigate the tainted process was apparently
squashed by Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, according to political
insiders.
After
the long-needed investigation was squashed, Tribal Leaders,
environmentalists and fishermen continued to challenge the role of
Reheis-Boyd and other corporate operatives in creating alleged "marine
protected areas."
At
the peaceful takeover of an MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) meeting
by North Coast Tribes and their allies in Fort Bragg on July 21, 2010,
Yurok Tribal Elder Susan Burdick pointedly asked Reheis-Boyd and the
task force, “What is your real purpose: to start drilling for oil off
our coastline? Be honest with us!”
Burdick’s
concerns over the push by the oil industry and others to industrialize
the California coast were echoed by environmentalists including Judith Vidaver, then Chair of the Ocean Protection Coalition (OPC).
“For
over 25 years OPC, with our fisher and seaweed harvester allies, has
protected our ocean from threats such as aquaculture projects, nuclear
waste dumping, offshore oil development and recently, wave power
plants,” Vidaver stated. “We are requesting that final Marine Protected
Area (MPA) designations include language prohibiting these
industrial-scale commercial activities.”
She
also shocked the panel by asking that task force member Catherine
Reheis-Boyd voluntarily step down from her position on the BRTF.
“Oil
and water do not mix—as we are being reminded daily by the disaster
spewing in the Gulf,” she stated. “Mrs. Reheis-Boyd’s position as
President of the Western States Petroleum Association and her lobbying
efforts to expand offshore oil drilling off the coast of California are a
patent conflict of interest for which she should recuse herself from
the BRTF proceedings which are ostensibly meant to protect the marine
ecosystem."
Unfortunately,
the calls of Tribal members, grassroots environmentalists and fishermen
to include strong protections from oil drilling, fracking, pollution
and ocean industrialization in "marine protected areas" and their
repeated challenges of the role of a big oil industry lobbyist in the
process went unheeded.
Now
the Coastal Commission and other state officials express "surprise"
after they read an Associated Press report documenting that at least 12
fracking operations have been conducted in the Santa Barbara Channel in
recent years.
At
the same time, Governor Jerry Brown, a strong supporter of the oil
industry, is fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to
build the peripheral tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta. The tunnels will be used to export massive quantities of water to
corporate agribusiness interests and oil companies seeking to expand
fracking operations in Kern County and coastal areas. The construction
of the tunnels will hasten the extinction of Central Valley salmon and
steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish
species.
Reheis-Boyd
apparently used her role as a state marine “protection” official to
increase her network of influence in California politics to the point
where the Western States Petroleum Association has become the most
powerful corporate lobby in California. The association now has enormous
influence over both state and federal regulators – and MLPA Initiative
advocates helped facilitate her rise to power. (http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/07/the-ocean-frackers/)
Oil
and gas companies spend more than $100 million a year to buy access to
lawmakers in Washington and Sacramento, according to Stop Fooling
California, an online and social media public education and awareness
campaign that highlights oil companies’ efforts to mislead and confuse
Californians. The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) alone has
spent more than $16 million lobbying in Sacramento since 2009.
When
the oil industry wields this much power - and an oil industry lobbyist
oversaw the process that was supposed to "protect" the ocean - it
shouldn't be a surprise to anybody that California's ocean waters are
now being "fracked." Both the state and federal regulators have
completely failed in their duty to protect our ocean, bays, rivers and
Delta.
More information about the MLPA Initiative is here.
What Is Fracking and Why Should It Be Banned?
"Fracking
is short for hydraulic fracturing. It’s a water-intensive process where
millions of gallons of fluid – typically water, sand, and chemicals,
including ones known to cause cancer – are injected underground at high
pressure to fracture the rock surrounding an oil or gas well. This
releases extra oil and gas from the rock, so it can flow into the well.
But
the process of fracking introduces additional industrial activity into
communities beyond the well. Clearing land to build new access roads and
new well sites, drilling and encasing the well, fracking the well and
generating the waste, trucking in heavy equipment and materials and
trucking out the vast amounts of toxic waste — all of these steps
contribute to air and water pollution risks and devaluation of land that
is turning our communities into sacrifice zones. Fracking threatens the
air we breathe, the water we drink, the communities we love and the
climate on which we all depend. That’s why over 250 communities in the
U.S. have passed resolutions to stop fracking, and why Vermont, France
and Bulgaria have stopped it."
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