KCAL9 CBS Story "Oil Drilling Proposal in Hermosa Beach"

Stacey Armato, Michael Collins from StopHermosaBeachOil.com
No Comment From E&B Natural Resources

Thank You Serene Branson from KCAL 9 

E&B did not comment on this story because news publicity is last they want in the Los Angeles area. E&B is attempting to take advantage of a vulnerable town and quietly drill into the Santa Monica Bay without waking up the powerful media groups that will make this a huge National story. The oil drilling proposal is not a story about 18,000 Hermosa Beach residents but more about maintaining the lifestyle of 11 million people that enjoy the cool breezes from Santa Monica Bay.  Its about jeapardizing the integrity of thousands of plugged oil wells under homes in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach that could leak and explode if they are come under pressure from new hydraulic drilling nearby.

This illegal settlement agreement was constructed by Hermosa Beach City Council Member Kit Bobko and he is obviously nervous in this video above doing his first TV interview on the topic.  He will be forced to defend the illegal Hermosa Beach oil settlement it in order to save his political career.  Look at Kit Bobko's horrendous environmental voting record.  Watch these videos below which show Hermosa Beach City Council hypocrisy, lies, deception & intimidation.

Hermosa Beach City Council Members Took An Oath To Protect & Serve Its' Residents

    
Hermosa Beach City Council Members Took An Oath To Protect & Serve

Chris Miller (Daughter of Famous Ski Movie producer Warren Miller) delivers a power speech to the City Council.  "You took at oath of office to protect and serve its' residents.  This is not what Hermosa Beach stands for and I do not want to be owned by an oil company.  The California Tide Lands Trust was founded to protected the Coastal areas above the surface and was not developed to sell out what is below the surface."

90% of all Oil & Gas Wells are Fracked

Response to:  Easy Reader Opinion Letter "On Local Government: Regarding Fracking"

Fracking is the process by which drillers inject millions of gallons of water, sand, salts, mud and chemicals—all too often toxic chemicals and human carcinogens such as benzene—into the ground at extremely high pressure, to fracture the rock and extract the raw fuel.  Its hard NOT to find a well in Southern California that has NOT been fracked in the last 60 years because the unregulated process has been going on for a long time.  How are we to ever know if this is what has caused the thousands of earthquakes the Midwest is now experiencing?

The fracking process is used to boost production at 90% of all oil and gas wells in the United States, according to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, and fracking is increasingly common in other countries as well.  Although fracking most often occurs when a well is new, companies fracture many wells repeatedly in an effort to extract as much valuable oil or natural gas as possible and to maximize the return on their investment in a profitable site.

The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC), is a United States organization that represents the governors of 30 member and eight associate states, and works to ensure the nation's oil and natural gas resources are conserved and utilized to their maximum potential while protecting health, safety and the environment. It was established by the charter member states' governors in 1935. The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission is the oldest and largest interstate compact in the nation.

Fracking poses serious dangers to both human health and the environment. The three biggest problems with fracking are:

1. Fracking is causing earthquakes in Midwest
2. Fracking can cause adjacent older plugged wells to explode. 
3. Fracking leaves behind a toxic sludge that companies and communities must find some way to manage. Safely disposing of the sludge created by fracking is an ongoing challenge.
4. Somewhere between 20 percent and 40 percent of the toxic chemicals used in the fracking process remain stranded underground where they can, and often do, contaminate drinking water, soil and other parts of the environment that support plant, animal and human life.
5. Methane from fracture wells can leak into groundwater, creating a serious risk of explosion and contaminating drinking water supplies so severely that some homeowners have been able to set fire to the mixture of water and gas coming out of their faucets.

In 2005, President George W. Bush exempted oil and gas companies from federal regulations designed to protect U.S. drinking water, and most state oil and gas regulatory agencies don’t require companies to report the volumes or names of the chemicals they use in the fracking process, chemicals such as benzene, chloride, toluene and sulfates.

The result, according to the nonprofit Oil and Gas Accountability Project, is that one of the nation's dirtiest industries is also one of its least regulated, and enjoys an exclusive right to "inject toxic fluids directly into good quality groundwater without oversight."

In May 2012 the California Senate defeated a bill, introduced by state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), requiring drillers to notify local property owners and water authorities in advance that hydraulic fracturing was going to occur, and requiring the testing of groundwater before and after the hydraulic fracturing to determine whether contamination had occurred. Pavley said that this monitoring and reporting approach would help to address citizens' concerns. The state Senate defeated the bill in a bipartisan 18-17 vote.

Why Is Oil & Gas Corruption Rarely Detected?

Over the next 20 years, it’s expected that oil production in California will increasing dramatically.  Yet many cities rich in oil and gas are home to some of the State's poorest people. How can this happen? Too often, wealth stays in the hands of politicians, industry insiders and local people. Revenues don’t get published and the surrounding community suffers as the quality of living goes down. Payments made to governments to exploit resources remain secret. Bribery and embezzlement go unchecked.

Many oil and gas companies protect the identities of their equity holders and subsidiaries. This allows corrupt leaders to hide stolen funds unnoticed. Inadequate financial statements make it easy to disguise corrupt deals, and impossible for any of us to monitor them. Many oil and gas companies don’t publish information by state and city. This allows them to hide the royalties, taxes and fees they pay. But without this information, we can’t hold governments to account for the money they receive.

The entire oil and gas industry spent on average $400,000 each day lobbying senators and representatives to weaken public health safeguards and keep big oil tax breaks, totaling nearly $150 million.

Stolen oil and gas income has terrible consequences and is widespread through the United States and World. It benefits an elite few. But for everyone else, it fuels conflict over resources and health and safety.  The solution?  Would you trust these people based on their track record?  Here is our list of suspicious E&B Natural Resources deals.  Submit your anonymous suspicious below under discussion . . .  

Hands Across The Sand Hermosa Beach - Saturday, May 18, 2013

Hands Across The Sand Hermosa Beach

Saturday, May 18, 2013 at 11 am

Here is video from 2010 celebrating an "oil free" town.  

Please take notice that Hermosa City Councilman Jeff Duclos is in this video.  

Jeff Duclos is also an alternate on the Coastal Commission.  

Fracking in California Can Induce More Earthquakes

Josh Fox of Gas Land Movie reveals unregulated fracking going on in Los Angeles, California and could cause a major earthquakes in the near future.  The USGS is studying the relationship to fracking but regulation still seems a long ways off.  Oil and gas companies are not required to disclose fracking even though hundreds of wells in Southern Califoria have and are currently being fracked.

In Oklahoma , Arkansas, and in Ohio, earthquakes shake the ground and rattle nerves. But these quakes are not the work of mother nature. The USGS says a controversial oil production method called "fracking" is responsible for triggering them

Fracking is a drilling method where highly pressurized water, sand, and a cocktail of chemicals are injected miles into the ground to shatter the rock, which allows the oil and gas to escape. A critical part of this process is getting rid of millions of gallons of waste water. A common way to do that is to re-inject it back into the earth. And that's what can trigger an earthquake. E&B will tell you they are not doing the controversial "hydraulic fracking" but won't be specific on how their technique differs from the above.  Do we want to take this risk?  

Cities That Have Banned Oil & Gas Fracking

Elections & City Council Bans

1)  Longmont, Colorado (Denver / Boulder Suburb) slaps drilling in face, Outspent 30-1 by oil and gas hacks, bans fracking within city limits. Not even close. 60%-40%.

2)  Mansfield, Ohio voters adopt Community Charter Amendment That Bans Toxic Injection Wells. Not even close 63%-37% 

3)  Ferguson, Pennsylvania voters approve Clean Air & Water Community Bill of Rights while banning injection wells, fracking & shale gas development.  52%-48%

4)  Not a ban but Carpinteria, California drilling initiative defeated oil drilling in 2010.  Blowout victory 70%-30%.

5)  Wellsburg, West Virginia City Council Banned Fracking

6)  Morgantown, West Virginia banned fracking and forced to zoning by judge ruling 

Read about more State initiatives underway.

I don't think people who have actually lived and own homes in Hermosa Beach, California have any intention of moving backwards to permit a century long ban of drilling in Santa Monica Bay. E&B is simply wasting our value time and City resources which could be better spent elsewhere.

E&B still has the opportunity to pack up their bags and go home to save face. 2014 is a long way away.

Please email any others I may have left off to jeff@drillingmaps.com

No Oil Money For Hermosa Beach Schools

Barbara Guild Speaking About Oil Drilling Underground In Ocean Benefits State of California (Tidelands Trust)

- No General Use of Oil $ From Ocean

- Schools Only Have Tiny Mineral Rights Royalty

- .20 Cents Per Barrel of Oil Extracted Under School

- No $ Use East of Strand

- No Police or Fire $
- No Road or Sewers $
- No New Building $
- No School $
- No Parks Money

State Tidelands Doctrine

The United States Supreme Court issued its landmark opinion on the nature of a state’s title to its tide and submerged lands nearly 110 years ago, and although courts have reviewed tidelands trust issues many times since then, the basic premise of the trust remains fundamentally unchanged. The Court said then that a state’s title to its tide and submerged lands is different from that to the lands it holds for sale. “It is a title held in trust for the people of the State that they may enjoy the navigation of the waters, carry on commerce over them, and have liberty of fishing” free from obstruction or interference from private parties. All uses, including those specifically authorized by the Legislature, must take into account the overarching principle of the public trust doctrine that trust lands belong to the public and are to be used to promote public rather than exclusively private purposes.

Evidence of Money Use in Newport Beach

Oil and gas revenue is deposited into the Tidelands Fund because the source of the oil is in the tidelands area which the City holds in trust for the people of California. The Tidelands Fund may be used only for eligible expenditures that support and maintain the tidelands, such as improvements to tidelands property including dredging Lower Newport Bay, lifeguards, beach cleaning, etc. 

The productivity of the oil wells continues to decline due to the age of the wells. New oil extraction techniques are required if the City continues to use the wells. The new techniques may include: reconditioning of existing oil wells, converting existing oil wells to water injection wells, drilling new water injection wells or drilling new oil wells. The City Charter restricted the redrilling of wells until January of 2011.

This is how we raise money for Hermosa Beach Schools through the Ed Foundation.