Amended California Fracking Ban Bill Will Cut Ban, Keep Setbacks

摘要

Plans for a fracking ban are out, but a buffer zone from oil and gas operations around homes, day cares, and community centers may still move forward in California. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D) has submitted amendments to remove the fracking ban language in his bill SB 467 after it died in the Senate Natural Resources and Water committee Tuesday, Wiener's communications director, Catie Stewart, said Friday. The amended bill would ban new or modified permits for oil and gas extraction within 2,500 feet of homes, schools, hospitals, and other sensitive areas, said Dan Ress, a staff attorney with Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, which sponsored the legislation. "Now the bill will focus only on the worst and most dangerous drilling practice: neighborhood drilling," Ress said in an email. The bill would only go into effect if the California Geologic Energy Management Division fails to require buffer zones around operations by July 2022, Ress said.