Feds auction prime Calif. land for oil development

[Le Taz Hot]

Source: Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The Bureau of Land Management is auctioning off nearly 18,000 acres of oil leases on prime public lands in central California, home to one of the largest deposits of shale oil in the country.

Agency spokesman David Christy says eight different groups - including oil companies - bid for the 15 parcels of land up for auction Wednesday in rural stretches of Monterey, San Benito and Fresno counties. The agency plans to announce the winners within 24 hours.

Numerous environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, protested outside the auction in Sacramento. The land up for grabs is also home to prized vineyards and several endangered species.

Democratic Rep. Sam Farr had asked the agency to put the auction on hold over concerns that the bureau wasn't doing enough to monitor the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing.

Read more: http://www.sacandco.net/news/article/220837/2/Feds-auction-prime-Calif-land-for-oil-development

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Seems California is the next target for envirocide in search of oil profits. I'm predicting a serious backlash in the not-too-far future. This is, after all, California. Way too many environmentalists here to let this go unchallenged. I'll sure as hell be there.

[Cleita]

1. This is plain wrong. We the people own that land and should be

taking bids for contracts for companies to extract that oil for our benefit, the proceeds to go to taking care of California's fiscal problem and fund our social programs. The oil will be extracted one way or the other, but keeping it in the hands of the people should keep the environmental impact to a minimum. Allowing it to become privatized won't guarantee that.

[byeya]

2. It's public land that the Bureau of Land Management is in charge of and they, by law, must

be good stewards of the land.
Have there been public hearings in the area of the giveaways?
What about environmental impact statements?
These are sensitive areas in the most part.

I wish we could say goodbye to DOI Sec'y Salazar.

[LaPera]

3. Pollute the water & lands all around - threaten people & wildlife

for a few years make a fortune (by overcharging & gouging) then their off to somewhere else to create the same destruction & pollution that will take years of clean-up and decades for everything to be as things were if ever. - the jobs will also be GONE.... while we tax payers will also foot the bill as the corporation fight paying, file bankruptcy or just ignore everything but their profits.

[Xithras]

4. I'll be there with you

The Valley has enough problems, and the pumpjack blight around Bakersfield is pretty bad as it is. I have no intention of letting that spread north without resisting with everything I have.

The California Central Valley sits on a basin fill aquifier with only a tiny outlet at the Delta. It's a massive bowl with only one pinhole leak. Fracking pollution won't flow away, but will sit there, in our aquifier, spreading slowly north for CENTURIES (we still have groundwater pollution issues from mining activities in the 1800's!). The Valley has one big aquifier stretching from Redding to Bakersfield, so a fracking threat in one part of the valley is a threat to all of us. More than 6 million people depend on that aquifier for all or part of their water supply.

Oil drilling also generates a lot of air pollution, and our air is so bad that the Valley Air District has already been considering petitions to completely ban fireplace use on all but a handful of days. I'll be damned if I'm going to let them take my fireplace away just so the oil companies can dump more NOx, hydrocarbons, and VOC's into our air. No air quality exemptions for oil companies!

[GoldenOldie]

5. Fracking vs Largest earthquake faults in the US =?

The East Coast, Texas and are having small earthquakes and in all instances where none was seen before. In all instances, they show that fracking is being done in the surrounding areas.

[Xithras]

6. There's very little chance of any permits being issued for fracking near the San Andreas itself.

Even our politicians aren't stupid enough to allow that one. And if they were, any attempt to do so would be immediately buried in CEQA suits. And no judge, anywhere in this state, would shoot down a CEQA suit trying to stop fracking near the fault.

That's part of what makes CEQA such a great law here in California. If the government refuses to get involved and protect our environment, CEQA empowers the citizenry to force their hand.

[sdfernando]

8. I wouldn't be so sure about that. Seems it is already being done near the fault.

I knew I had heard something about fraking near san andreas....turns out it was on DU itself.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=208646

[blkmusclmachine]

7. Fracking poison into land water

It's good for Big Pharma.

.

Operation Northwoods: The 9/11 You Never Knew

[KamaAina]

9. And this benefits us how, exactly?

California is the only oil-producing jurisdiction IN THE WORLD that does not levy a severance fee. So the downside is fracking right next to one of the most active sections of the San Andreas Fault, and the upside is -- pretty much zilch.