A coalition of community members, Protect Monterey County (PMC), with 250 volunteers, have collected over 16,000 signatures to qualify the citizens initiative to ban fracking and other extreme extraction techniques for the November ballot. It’s time to end the massive oil industry subsidies and turn our collective efforts to research and implementation of clean renewable energy. 

Big Oil is already setting the stage to fight these efforts and that’s why we’re calling on you for help. This fight is also a symbolic one – and one that could have rippling effects across California. Sign up now at www.protectmontereycounty.org or send an email to info@protectmontereycounty. 

What’s at stake:

Big Oil is doing much more damage in Monterey county than most people know or even realize.

Protect Monterey County has located documents showing that Chevron and other oil companies have been using High Intensity Steam Injection (a practice akin to fracking that requires 2-4 million gallons of fresh water per well) at approximately one-third of the wells in the San Ardo Oil Field (that’s 1,000 well sites of the nearly 3,000 that exist in this oil field alone).

In addition, since 2008 oil companies have been illegally polluting the Salinas River aquifers via wastewater injection wells. These aquifers are part of the Salinas groundwater basin on which all the cities in Salinas Valley depend, and which flow northward and empty into Monterey Bay.  Both the aquifers and the Bay are protected under the Clean Water Act. Recently, the EPA investigated the California’s Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) revealing that thousands of wells had illegally injected wastewater into protected aquifers.

Not surprisingly, the highest concentration of earthquakes in the Salinas Valley occur in the area near the San Ardo wastewater injection wells. As we’ve seen in other states around the country, massive amounts of earthquakes can be triggered by wastewater injection.

Lastly, the sand-shale that is being fracked is a very high density crude, like blankets of tar embedded in sandy shale formations. Similar to the tar sands in Canada, these deposits are very costly to extract, energetically, environmentally and financially.

If oil companies were no longer allowed to externalize these costs that compromise the health of the land and our people, they would not be doing it. Political leaders have so far been unwilling to take action, so residents are taking this fight into their own hands.

The Plan:

With your help, a citizen’s initiative will be on the ballot in November to ban all new permits for oil and gas extraction. Santa Cruz and San Benito counties have already passed similar measures.

Monterey County is already attracting national and international attention on this issue because this will be its first attempt to pass a ban. Also, this fight will set an example for future efforts with the hope that similar initiatives spread across the state.

How you can help:

If past initiatives are any indication, Protect Monterey County anticipates that Big Oil will spend close to $8 million to oppose this effort. That’s where you come in. To put it simply, PCM needs volunteers and donations. Here’s how you can get involved below and remember that every little bit helps!

1. Volunteer

Protect Monterey Country will be moving into the campaign phase now. Our grassroots campaign reaching voters one-on-one needs you! Sign up here to be a volunteer!

2. Donate

Please contribute — any amount is greatly appreciated! FPPC #1378176
Click here to donate online to Protect Monterey County or mail your donation to the address below.

PMC
P.O. Box 1946
Monterey, CA 93942

3. Help Spread the Word

Do you have friends or family that live in the Central Coast Monterey Bay area? Please encourage them to pledge to vote for this ban in November and help out the campaign in some way.

More info:

For more information visit http://www.protectmontereycounty.org/ or contact info@protectmontereycounty.org with any questions you have.  

To learn more – check out these articles below.

• Monterey Shale Shakes Up California’s Energy Future, National Geographic, May 2013
• http://montereyoil.org/ 
  “For all of these reasons, this analysis suggests that California should consider its economic and energy future in the absence of an oil production boom from the Monterey shale.”
  Report by J. David Hughes, a geoscientist and fellow with Richard Heinberg’s Post Carbon Institute.

Thanks for your support!

Protect Monterey County & CSMC.