Fracking Opponents Charge Gov. Jerry Brown with Environmental Hypocrisy

"Fracking is a technique in which wells are injected with a chemical fluid under high pressure to fracture underground rock formations to release oil and natural gas that are otherwise unobtainable," reports John Wildermuth for the San Francisco Chronicle in an extensive piece on the controversial procedure, and also the importance of oil drilling to the Golden State, fourth in production after Texas, North Dakota, and Alaska.

While fracking has boosted energy production across the nation, environmentalists argue that the fluid used can threaten the water supply, that more [greenhouse gas] pollutants are released into the air and, more generally, that producing more oil allows people to use more oil.

“It’s hypocritical for Brown to call himself a climate leader,” said Catherine Garoupa White of Californians Against Fracking, a coalition of environmental groups. The governor’s support for fracking “is a huge smear on Brown’s green record.

Brown's response:

“California is only producing 30 percent of its oil,” Brown said. “The rest comes in ships, mostly, but increasingly in trains.”

Cutting the state’s oil production without cutting demand just means that more of California’s oil will come from other states or other countries, which may not have the strong restrictions on fracking and oil production that California now has.

Brown can point to his signing SB 4 in 2013, the "nation's toughest fracking bill," authored by renowned environmentalist Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills). And while Congress was debating rolling back an Obama-era regulation on methane emissions, the state Air Resources Board approved a landmark rule that regulates methane emissions from onshore and offshore oil and gas production and storage facilities.

Keep it in the ground