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Media Advisory, July 25, 2012

Contact:  Rose Braz, (510) 435-6809

Californians to Lawmakers: Stop Fracking With Our State

Rally Expected to Draw Large Turnout Before Final Fracking Workshop

What: Concerned Californians from around the state will rally in Sacramento today against fracking. A coalition of consumer and environmental advocacy groups is organizing a rally outside a California Department of Conservation Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources hearing, where leaders will speak. A march and street theater are also expected.

When: Wednesday, July 25, 5:30 p.m.

Where: California EPA, 1001 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95812

A DOGGR workshop on fracking will follow at 7 p.m. in the Byron Sher Auditorium, California EPA.

Background:
The controversial oil and gas drilling practice of fracking poses a greater risk regarding groundwater, air quality, climate change and public health than conventional drilling. Since May, the California Department of Conservation Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) has held seven workshops across the state to gather information aimed at regulating the practice. At these hearings, consumers, farmers and environmentalists have voiced their overwhelming concern that, until it can be proven safe, fracking must be stopped in the interest of public health and California’s precious natural resources.

“The fracking boom is a significant threat to California’s environment and public health,” said Rose Braz, climate campaign director with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Many people know that fracking can foul the water, pollute the air and threaten endangered wildlife. But fracking’s dirty little secret is the amount of greenhouse gas pollution it emits. If oil companies frack the 15 billion barrels of oil in the Monterey Shale, we’ll be lighting the fuse on a carbon bomb that will shatter our state’s efforts to fight global warming.”

The rally’s sponsors include the Center for Biological Diversity, Citizens for a Safe Community, Clean Water Action, Credo Action, Earthworks Action, Environment California, Food & Water Watch, Sierra Club, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the Planning and Conservation League.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 375,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.