SANTA BARBARA, Calif. March 8, 2022 -The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted today to reject ExxonMobil’s proposal to transport oil by tanker trucks along hazardous California highways. The plan would have helped the company restart three 1980s drilling platforms off the Santa Barbara coast, shut down since the Refugio disaster seven years ago. Today’s vote comes on […]
Food & Water Watch
Posted inCalifornia
Analysis Shows California Investor Owned Gas Utilities Hiked Pandemic Rates Even As Their Revenue Rose
According to new analysis by environmental watchdog Food & Water Watch, California investor-owned gas utilities like SoCalGas were charging customers 53.9 percent more even as their companies saw revenue rise. SoCalGas, PG&E, and San Diego Gas and Electric Company all saw revenue increases in 2020 compared to 2019 (the year before the pandemic hit). Between […]
Posted inCalifornia
Ventura County Ballot Includes Measures A, B For Consistent Oil Drilling Permit Environmental Requirements
Ventura, CA, February 11, 2022 – Ventura County announced that consistent environmental requirements for oil and gas drilling would return to the ballot this year in the form of measures A and B. Both measures would eliminate the use of “antiquated” permits in Ventura County. In some cases, these permits are nearly one hundred years […]
Posted inCalifornia
Oil and Gas Industry Diverted 3 Billion Gallons of Freshwater for Drilling That Could Have Gone to Households
Sacramento, CA, June 15, 2021 — After examining the use of water by the oil and gas industry during Gavin Newsom’s tenure as governor, Food & Water Watch research has found that on Newsom’s watch the industry used more than 3 billion gallons of freshwater for drilling operations that could have been diverted for household […]
Posted inCalifornia
Newsom Directs Agencies to Stop New Fracking Permits By 2024, Skirting Full Ban
Sacramento, CA, April 23, 2021 – Today California Governor Gavin Newsom once more declined to use his executive power to ban fracking, opting instead to direct CALGem to phase out new fracking permits by January 2024 and phase out oil extraction by 2045. These measures fall far short of demands, failing to address more than […]
Posted inCalifornia
L.A. City Council Committee Advances Resolution Calling for Newsom to Shut Down Playa del Rey Gas Facility
Los Angeles, CA, March 17, 2021 – The L.A. City Council Rules, Elections, and Intergovernmental Relations Committee voted to advance Councilmember Mike Bonin’s motion calling for a just transition plan from the State to shut down the Playa del Rey gas facility. Similar language was used by Culver City earlier this month in passing a […]
Posted inCalifornia
Culver City Calls on Governor Newsom to Close Neighboring Gas Storage Facility in Playa Del Rey
WASHINGTON, March 9, 2021 – The Culver City Council last night approved a resolution calling on the State of California to develop a timeline and plan for closing down the SoCalGas natural gas storage facility in Playa del Rey. The gas facility at Playa del Rey has been the site of numerous leaks and blowouts, including […]
Posted inEnviro
New Research Shows Fracking and Petrochemicals Create Fewer Pennsylvania Jobs than Clean Energy
September 21, 2020 – While Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette toured a Shell petrochemical plant under construction in Pennsylvania today, a new analysis shows that the high-profile project will employ far less workers than promised, and that a similar investment in wind and solar manufacturing would be far more beneficial. The new Food & Water Watch […]
Posted inEnviro
300 Orgs Oppose “Voluntary Water Partnership” Bill, Which Would Coerce Struggling Communities to Sell Off Public Water Systems
Washington, D.C. July 13, 2020 – Nearly 300 national, state and local organizations sent a letter to Senate leaders today calling for the rejection of a controversial bill that would coerce struggling communities into selling off vital public water resources. The bill – the Voluntary Water Partnership for Distressed Communities Act (S. 2596) – has been framed […]
Posted inCalifornia
Exposed: 3,000% Increase in Aliso Canyon Use Under Governor Newsom
Los Angeles, June 9, 2020 – Food & Water Action has analysed data compiled over the last four years and found that the use of the infamous SoCalGas Aliso Canyon gas storage facility – home to the largest gas blowout in U.S. history – has increased by about 3,000% under Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration. This comes despite Newsom’s […]
Posted inCalifornia
Mitch Jones: Cap and Trade Auction Reveals Weakness of Market-Based Climate Policy
May 20, 2020 – Today, California is conducting its quarterly auction of pollution allowances under the state’s cap-and-trade program. Due to the massive drop in fossil fuel demand, analysts expect the auction to generate substantially less revenue than anticipated. In response, Food & Water Action Policy Director Mitch Jones released the following statement: Today’s carbon […]
Posted inEnviro
New Research Shows Fracking’s Grave Toll on Climate
Washington, D.C. Feb. 10, 2020 – As the country makes little progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, new research calls into question the supposed climate benefits of the switch from coal to fracked gas-fired power generation. That finding comes in Fracking’s Bridge to Climate Chaos: Exposing the Fossil Fuel Industry’s Deadly Spin, a new report from […]
Posted inCalifornia
50 Organizations Send Letter to Gov. Newsom Calling for PG&E Public Takeover
Sacramento November 14, 2019 – Some 50 organizations, joined by Former PUC President Loretta Lynch, sent a letter to Gov. Newsom today demanding a public takeover of PG&E as a step towards holding accountable the rogue utility, now in bankruptcy. Noting that PG&E has shut off power to millions of residents and been found responsible for […]
Posted inCalifornia
The Solution to Risky Powerlines is More Wind, Solar and Distributed Battery Storage
Oakland October 10, 2019 – In response to PG&E’s decision to cut power to 800,000 Californians to avoid wildfire dangers, Food & Water Action California State Director Alexandra Nagy, issued the following statement: “Governor Newsom’s bail out of PG&E shareholders under the guise of a wildfire insurance fund is fueling the crisis we see here today. […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Wenonah Hauter: Single-Use Plastic Bans: Good for Our Food, Water and Planet
Washington, D.C. June 10, 2019– Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will ban single-use plastics as early as 2021, following on a similar move by the EU earlier this year. The government is considering items such as bottled water, plastic bags and straws. In response, Food & Water Watch released the following statement […]
Posted inEnviro
New Report Details Vast Scope and Scale of Emerging Fracking Infrastructure Boom
Washington, D.C. June 7, 2019 – A first-of-its-kind report from the advocacy group Food & Water Watch provides a full and detailed analysis of the emerging fracked gas infrastructure buildout that is symbiotically driving, and being driven by, a new fracking boom in America. This unique study comprehensively charts natural gas infrastructure buildout by surveying the power, petrochemical and gas export industries collectively. Overall, […]
Posted inCalifornia
Food & Water Watch Applauds UC President and Regents for Temporary Halt on Use of Toxic Herbicide Glyphosate
Oakland, May 16, 2019 – University of California President Janet Napolitano has issued a temporary end to the use of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, Ranger, and other commercial herbicides, on all ten UC campuses serving over 200,000 students. The Berkeley campus reduced the use of herbicides last year after pressure from students and […]
Posted inWorld
On Eve of EU-US Energy Forum, 200 Groups on Both Sides of the Atlantic Unite in Opposition To Climate-hostile LNG Trade
Brussels and Washington, D.C. April 30, 2019 – Today, 200 groups from both sides of the Atlantic released an open letter to EU Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete and U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, calling on the EU and U.S. administrations to immediately stop the transatlantic trade in fracked hydrocarbons. Yesterday, the Department of Energy announced […]
Posted inEnviro
UN Recognizes Access to Clean, Affordable Water and Climate Justice as Civil Rights Under International Law
Washington, D.C. April 8, 2019 – Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) adopted language in its International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights review that acknowledged the right to clean, affordable water and the “right to life” in the face of climate impacts. In its “List of Issues Prior to Submission of […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Wenonah Hauter: Trump’s Budget Serves Industry Profits at the Expense of Our Health
Washington, D.C. March 11, 2019 – Today the Trump administration released its proposed 2020 budget, with steep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Agriculture, and with Department of Energy funding to continue Trump’s “Energy Dominance” policies promoting continued reliance on oil, gas, coal, and nuclear. It also proposes privatizing federally owned […]