Food & Water Watch, CREDO, 350 San Diego, and other organizations representing the statewide coalition Californians Against Fracking protested Governor Jerry Brown’s support of fracking at all three of his budget proposal news conferences across the state Tuesday.
Because fracking is a major threat to California’s environment, economy, and public health, the coalition is urging the governor to halt fracking immediately.
The coalition highlighted Gov. Brown’s “decision to allow oil corporations to frack and pollute the atmosphere with vast amounts of methane and carbon dioxide, worsening the climate crisis and increasing drought risk, despite his rhetoric about the need to fight climate change.” In addition to worsening climate change, fracking is said to exacerbate the water crisis by polluting millions of gallons of fresh water with toxic chemicals. Further, the underground disposal of the toxic wastewater produced by fracking operations has been linked to earthquakes across the country.
Californians Against Fracking is a statewide coalition of environmental, business, health, agriculture, climate, labor, environmental justice and political organizations working to win a statewide ban on fracking in California. Members of Californians Against Fracking have protested at Brown’s speaking engagements around the state to call attention to the governor’s failure to take meaningful action against the threats of fracking. Since the launch of Californians Against Fracking in May of 2013, more than 200,000 petitions have been signed urging Gov. Brown to ban fracking in California.
