Stop fracking in California

Poster for “Crude Beyond Belief” premiere. Credit: WILPF Fresno Earth Democracy Facebook page.
 

By Jean Hays, WILPF Fresno Earth Democracy, and Nancy Price, Earth Democracy

Governor Brown no longer qualifies as an environmentalist. Failing to enact a moratorium on fracking in California and to stop irrigation of crops with contaminated fracked water, he’ll go down in history as caving to Big Oil and gas.

On July 19, the Fresno Branch of WILPF US held its DVD premiere of “Crude Beyond Belief”. This video is the outcome of the fracking tour organized by Jean Hays of Fresno Earth Democracy and led by Kern County water and air expert Tom Frantz and filmed by our local Community Media Access Collaborative (CMAC).

As Elly Benson reported in a November 2015 article on the Sierra Club website: “Kern County, located in California’s Central Valley, is the nation’s top oil-producing county. Despite California’s reputation as a climate leader, it is the nation’s third largest oil-producing state—trailing only Texas and North Dakota. Approximately 75 percent of the oil extracted in California comes from Kern County, and the county is home to 95 percent of the fracking that occurs in the state.”

What can you do?

Please order “Crude Beyond Belief” now. The cost of the DVD + mailing is $15. You can send payment, along with your mailing information, to WILPF Fresno, P.O. Box 5114, Fresno, CA, 93755.

Plan to show “Crude Beyond Belief” at a House Party or local public event. This is the ideal WILPF resource for your branch, wherever you are, to educate your community about the harm caused by fracking and its associated infrastructure and to emphasize that we must keep 80 percent of fossil fuels in the ground to avoid runaway global warming and its impacts on people and the planet.

Complement your film screening with our Climate Justice+Women+Peace infographic card. Make the connection: The TPP will dramatically accelerate fracking and export of oil and gas to the Pacific Rim countries and increase extreme weather events.

California WILPFers: Sign the petition to Governor Brown: protect our food from toxic oil wastewater.

Work to STOP the TPP in the lame duck session, November 14 to December 16, 2016. As you know, President Obama is pressing forward for a lame duck vote and has submitted the required implementing legislation. But let’s be clear: Republican House Majority Leader Paul Ryan is a huge supporter of the TPP. Remember, Senate Majority Leader McConnell has come out against a lame duck vote, but wants to “improve” the TPP; and Hillary Clinton is, at present, against the TPP in its present form. Keep in mind that Clinton’s VP running mate, until recently, was a strong free trade supporter, and Clinton appointed wildly pro-TPP Ken Salazar as head of her transition team.

Please do your part. When Congress is back in D.C. on September 6, call your representative and ask for a “No” on the TPP and a “No” lame duck vote!
 

Above photo: Jean Hays speaking at the premiere. Credit: WILPF Fresno Earth Democracy Facebook page.