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At a conference in Los Angeles at the end of July, the chair of the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), Felicia Marcus, noted that the Department of Conservation’s Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) is delaying the release of its draft regulations of hydraulic fracturing until after the state’s legislative session. Marcus indicated that DOGGR is waiting to see whether the legislature will pass the remaining bill to regulate fracking, Senator Pavley’s SB 4.
Continue Reading DOGGR Delays Release of Draft Fracking Rules Pending Possible Instruction from Lawmakers

On July 29 and 30, Stoel Rives attorney Mike Mills and I will speak at a conference on Hydraulic Fracturing in California. The conference will take place at the DoubleTree Guest Suites Santa Monica Hotel in Santa Monica, CA. Click here for more information about the conference and registration.
Continue Reading Stoel Rives Attorneys to Speak at Conference on Hydraulic Fracturing and Environmental Regulation in California

The one remaining bill before the California Legislature this session that would regulate hydraulic fracturing was amended in the Assembly this week. However, the amendment did not simply remove the fracking moratorium, as promised (see June 13, 2013, post), but it also included a provision that would regulate acid well stimulation treatment. The bill, SB 4, defines “acid well stimulation treatment” as treatment that involves the application of acids to a well to stimulate production.
Continue Reading Surviving Fracking Bill Amended to Include Acid Well Stimulation

On Wednesday, the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources rejected one of the remaining two bills this session that would have regulated hydraulic fracturing activities. The rejected bill, AB 7, was amended on the floor at the end of May and sent back to the Natural Resources Committee. As amended, AB 7 would have required approval of proposed fracking activities, notice to property owners, regional water quality board approval of the proposed wastewater disposal, and disclosures relating to fracking fluids.
Continue Reading Only One Fracking Bill Survives in the California Legislature

The California State Legislature was busy last week amending and voting on bills relating to hydraulic fracturing, including rejection of a moratorium. The Senate passed SB 4 with Senator Pavley’s announcement that she would remove the fracking moratorium provision to get the bill to the Assembly. With that change, there will be no surviving bills proposing a fracking moratorium this legislative session.
Continue Reading California Legislature Weeds out Fracking Bills and Rejects Moratorium

Yesterday, the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality advanced two bills that would increase regulation of hydraulic fracturing. The first of these bills, SB 4, would (1) impose a permit requirement specific to fracking activities and (2) prohibit fracking beginning January 1, 2015, pending the completion of a study on the impact of fracking (see April 11, 2013, post). The second bill, SB 395, would (1) subject the disposal of fracking-related water to underground injection control (UIC) regulations, from which oil and gas operations are currently exempt, and (2) effectively prohibit the disposal of fracking wastewater containing hazardous waste by injection (see April 8, 2013, post).
Continue Reading Senate Committee Also Advances Fracking Bills

On Monday, the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources passed three separate bills that separately would each place a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. The next stop for these bills is the Assembly Committee on Appropriations, then the bills may advance to the floor.

Each of the three bills would restrict fracking activities pending a determination of whether and under what conditions fracking may be conducted without risk to human health or the environment. Two of the bills, AB 1301 and AB 1323, would prohibit fracking anywhere in the state. The third bill, AB 649, would only prohibit fracking, as well as the use of clean freshwater for fracking purposes, within a yet to be determined distance of an aquifer.
Continue Reading Assembly Committee Advances Bills to Impose Fracking Moratorium

Less than a month after the United States District Court for the Northern District of California’s decision that BLM failed to fully evaluate the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing operations in granting oil and gas leases (see April 11, 2013, post), the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club have initiated a second lawsuit challenging BLM’s award of oil and gas leases for a much larger area of federal lands in California. The first suit challenged BLM’s issuance of oil and gas leases for approximately 2,700 acres of land. The second suit calls into question federal leases for nearly 18,000 acres of land. Both sets of leases involve California’s Monterey Shale Formation.
Continue Reading Environmental Groups Challenge More BLM Leases Based on District Court’s Finding that BLM Failed to Adequately Consider the Impacts of Fracking

Yesterday, the California Assembly Committee on Natural Resources passed three bills that would impose new permitting and disclosure requirements on hydraulic fracturing operations. The Committee passed and referred these three bills, AB 288, AB 7 and AB 669, to the Committee on Appropriations.
Continue Reading Committee on Natural Resources Advances Three Bills to Increase Regulation of Fracking

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