LA Is About to Be Frack-Free

The nation's second-largest city looks like it's about to be frack-free.

It turns out that the practice of blasting a cocktail of toxic chemicals deep into the ground has proven controversial among people who live atop and around that ground, to the surprise of oil companies everywhere (if not their executives). As such, a number of nations, states, municipalities have set about banning fracking—France, Vermont, and Pittsburgh are some notable examples.

Now, the Los Angeles City Council has voted unanimously to proceed with an effort to place a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the city "is poised to ban hydraulic fracturing, acidizing and other technologies used to increase production from oil and gas wells." The vote came after a sustained outrcy from concerned citizens and environmental activists, and would halt the activity pending better oversight. The Times explains that "Under the proposal, so-called fracking, acidizing and other kinds of 'well stimulation' would be prohibited until the council was assured that state and federal regulations adequately protected people from their effects."

"I'm delighted to see the Los Angeles City Council take the first steps to ban fracking in the largest urban oilfield in California and place constituent health over oil companies' lobbying," RL Miller, the chair of the California Democratic Party's environmental caucus told me in an email. "Sacramento politicians would do well to heed the shift in the political winds."

The ban is largely symbolic—there's not a whole lot of eligible frackland in LA. But it offers a snapshot of fracking's political popularity in a California's biggest city. And the state at large is a potential hotbed for fracking.

There are still hurdles to clear, of course. The council's vote is merely to begin the process—it directs the city's attorney to draft an ordinance that would have to clear the council again.

But a unanimous vote in favor of restricting the drilling is a pretty solid indicator. Councilman Paul Koretz thinks so, according to the Times. He addressed an enthusiastic crowd before the vote, outlined the hazards of fracking, and predicted success:

"Until these radical methods of oil and gas extraction are at the very least covered by the Safe Drinking Water Act, until chemicals are disclosed and problems are honestly reported, until we're safe from earthquakes, until our atmosphere is safe from methane leaks, we need a fracking moratorium."