Jerry Brown, the godfather of environmental activism, has sent his leftist supporters otherwise known as the entire State of California into a tailspin by refusing to ban fracking.
Gasp!
According to the Washington Times, the governor’s views don’t sit well with Hollywood, where a local fracking ban is already in place.
Mr. Brown has defended fracking’s safety record while insisting on balancing the movement’s health and safety concerns with the economic benefits of oil and gas drilling. Much of the state’s fossil fuel exploration and development takes place in the Central Valley, which is plagued by high poverty.
Mr. Brown has also scolded his critics for parochialism, saying that the fuel to power California’s 30 million cars will simply come from elsewhere under a state ban, while warning against “jumping on any ideological bandwagons.”
Fractivists were dancing in the streets after the State of New York passed a ban, certain that anti-frack fever would spread across the nation.
But alas, common sense has prevailed.
A statewide fracking ban has been resisted in Colorado, rejected in Texas, and now the most liberal state in the union is jumping on the pro-energy bandwagon.
The article cites numerous reasons that Brown defied his own constituency — lower carbon emissions from natural gas, the industry’s safety record, and the fact that California is the third-largest consumer of gas and diesel on the planet, right after China and the entire U.S.