Trump plans to allow fracking near California's national parks

[nitpicker]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/26/trump-plans-to-allow-fracking-near-californias-national-parks

Trump plans to allow fracking near California's national parks

Gabrielle Canon

Fri 26 Apr 2019 20.07 BST Last modified on Fri 26 Apr 2019 20.15 BST

The Trump administration has issued a plan to open more than a million acres in California to fracking, including areas close to Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks.

In its proposal, the government made a case that the effects on a range of delicate issues – from degrading air quality to threats to cultural and Native American resources in the area – could be avoided or minimized on 1,011,470 acres across eight counties. The plan could end a five-year fracking moratorium in California enforced by a federal judge.

Environmental groups are planning to put up a fight. “We will push back every step of the way against this reckless plan to subject more of California’s lands, wildlife, and communities to fracking,” Monica Embrey, a senior campaign representative at the Sierra Club, said in a statement.

Making good on a campaign promise, Donald Trump has attempted to lift environmental regulations on federal lands across the country and has vowed to increase America’s energy independence by opening up drilling domestically. This has put him directly at odds with California leaders, who are are pursuing a greener future.

In 2018, when the administration first rolled back regulations to make way for new leasing opportunities, California’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, called the repeal a “federal overreach” and vowed to resist increased fracking in the state. “The risks of fracking to our health and to our environment are real … from the evaporation of toxic chemicals, to low-level seismic events, to the contamination of our drinking water.”

Maps included in the report, which outline potential areas where fracking leases could be most fruitful, highlight swaths of land that border national parks and national forests. The boundaries are just south of Yosemite and bump up to the edge of Sequoia national forest. Advocates at the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) claim the scope of the proposal falls within two miles of that park.
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[tirebiter]

1. There has to be discipline in stuff like this

Jerry Brown allowed fracking. Just not much. He was able to keep environmentalists at bay because he kept the oil industry in control. That’s who I want to run things. Someone who doesn’t go over the edge. Fracking is not the end of life as we know it or the next greatest gold rush. It has to be done carefully and intelligently. Trump’s all about the show and with him if it’s not the biggest thing yet it’s a failure. Trump guarantees failure in his approach

[SleeplessinSoCal]

2. fracking can cause earthquakes. CA faults are biggest near mountaind

The amount of destruction this will do is co.pounded at least threefold earthquakes 1), noxious injections into the earth from fracking, 2) emissions down the line, and 3) damage to the parks themselves

If Trump isn't gone by 2021, CA will have to leave the union to save itself from Trumpism.

[Submariner]

3. Fracking in a state that is ground zero for

earthquake faults may not be prudent.

[pazzyanne]

4. Of course he is!

Money is #1 in trumpworld! A idiotic decision from the idiot in the White House.

[lark]

5. Fucking asshole is doing this on purpose to hurt CA.

Yes, he's probably been bribed like always, but make no doubt this is bout hurting Dems in CA every single way he possibly can. There is no more childish, vindictive, hate filled, greedy oligarch in the entire world. He's also by far the most orange person outside of FL and So. Ca.