Beverly Hills Is First California City To Ban Fracking

The city council also banned acidization and other extreme well stimulation techniques.

“I do believe in local control, and we are exerting our power as a city to say fracking is not a compatible land use in Beverly Hills,” councilmember John Mirsch said in a press release from advocacy group Food and Water Watch (FWW), which noted that the law will go into effect as soon as it is voted on a second time at an upcoming formal council meeting.

The ban on fracking — or hydraulic fracturing, the process of blasting water, chemicals and sand into the earth to break up rocks to free oil and natural gas — is something Mirsch says he hopes will catalyze change beyond affluent Beverly Hills. Southern California FWW organizer Brenna Norton told The Huffington Post that there are currently no known fracking or other well stimulation techniques taking place in the area.

“This is not a ‘not in my backyard issue’ — it should not be in anyone’s back yard,” Mirsch continued. “And we also need to think long-term, even if our city is not a center of drilling — injecting millions of gallons of water and chemicals at high pressure into the earth can’t be good.”

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.