Anne C. Mulkern, E&E reporter
\nPublished: Friday, October 4, 2013<\/p>\n
Hydraulic fracturing operations in the waters off California’s coast
\nbreak multiple environmental laws, a green group warned yesterday in a
\nletter to two federal agencies.<\/p>\n
The Center for Biological Diversity asked the Bureau of Ocean Energy
\nManagement and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to
\nhalt offshore operations that use unconventional drilling, including
\nthe process known as fracking.<\/p>\n
Oil and natural gas company operations in the Pacific Ocean need to go
\nthrough a supplemental National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
\nanalysis, the letter said. That would look at potential threats to
\nenvironment and wildlife in the area, “which hosts the world’s densest
\nsummer concentrations of blue whales,” Center for Biological Diversity
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The agencies need to take corrective action or face a lawsuit from the
\ngreen group, said the Center for Biological Diversity.<\/p>\n
“Oil companies are fracking California’s beautiful coastal waters with
\ndangerous chemicals, and federal officials seem barely aware of the
\ndangers,” Miyoko Sakashita, an attorney and director of the Center’s
\noceans program, said in a statement. “We need an immediate halt to
\noffshore fracking before chemical pollution or an oil spill poisons the
\nwhales and other wildlife that depend on California’s rich coastal
\nwaters.”<\/p>\n
The Associated Press in August reported that companies including Venoco
\nInc. and Chevron Corp. have fracked offshore wells. Federal regulators
\nhave permitted at least a dozen instances of hydraulic fracturing in
\nthe Pacific Ocean since the late 1990s, AP reported, citing federal
\ndocuments obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests.<\/p>\n
At a California Coastal Commission meeting a week later, Brian Segee,
\nstaff attorney with the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense
\nCenter, said that most of the leases in question have existed for years
\nand have changed ownership several times. California bans new leases
\nfor offshore drilling (EnergyWire, Aug. 16).<\/p>\n
The center’s letter went to Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Pacific
\nRegion Director Ellen Aronson and Bureau of Safety and Environmental
\nEnforcement Pacific Region Director Jaron Ming. Neither immediately
\nresponded to reporter inquiries sent after business hours local time in
\nCalifornia.<\/p>\n
The Western States Petroleum Association, a trade group for oil and
\nnatural gas companies, also did not immediately reply to a request for
\ncomment. WSPA, as it’s known, has argued that the California
\nEnvironmental Quality Act, or CEQA, has not applied to onshore fracking
\noperations.<\/p>\n
Kassie Siegel, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity,
\nsaid that NEPA applies to offshore fracking under the same theory used
\nin a recent lawsuit in California. In that case, a federal judge ruled
\nthat the Bureau of Land Management improperly issued oil and gas leases
\nin California’s massive Monterey Shale without considering the effects
\nof hydraulic fracturing on leased lands (EnergyWire, April 9).<\/p>\n
“That suit focused on onshore fracking on public land in central
\nCalifornia, but the judge made it clear that NEPA applies to fracking,”
\nSiegel said.<\/p>\n
The Center for Biological Diversity subsequently filed a similar case.
\nIt has been in settlement talks with BLM on the remedy in the first
\ncase and on merits and remedy in the second case, said Brendan
\nCummings, the CBD attorney in the case.<\/p>\n
“As with onshore leases issued by BLM where the agency never looked at
\nfracking, offshore fracking has also never been analyzed in any NEPA
\ndocument, as fracking wasn’t considered at all in the old
\n[environmental impact statements] or [environmental assessments] for
\nthe original lease sales, nor in the more recent, very cursory NEPA
\ndone for more recent drilling permits on those leases,” Cummings said.<\/p>\n
“Approving any offshore drilling that involves fracking without new
\nNEPA is unlawful, and this letter puts the agency on notice of such,”
\nhe added.<\/p>\n
Yesterday’s letter sent to the agencies said that under NEPA, agencies
\nnot only must perform analyses prior to taking federal action but must
\nconduct supplemental review whenever “[t]here are significant new
\ncircumstances or information relevant to environmental concerns and
\nbearing on the proposed action or its impacts.”<\/p>\n
The green group also noted provisions in the Outer Continental Shelf
\nLands Act (OCSLA).<\/p>\n
“The Bureaus are required to ‘[p]revent damage to or waste of any
\nnatural resource, property, or the environment,'” the letter said,
\nciting the law, “and have the authority to suspend ‘any operation or
\nactivity, including production, pursuant to any lease or permit … if
\nthere is a threat of serious, irreparable, or immediate harm or damage
\nto life (including fish and other aquatic life), to property … or to
\nthe marine, coastal, or human environment.'”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anne C. Mulkern, E&E reporter Published: Friday, October 4, 2013 Hydraulic fracturing operations in the waters off California’s coast break multiple environmental laws, a green group warned yesterday in a letter to two federal agencies. The Center for Biological Diversity asked the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement … Continue reading E&E: Green group warns feds that Calif. offshore fracking breaks the law<\/span>