American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2015 - 136

ConventionSection: California Independent Petroleum Association
victory came in March, when the Los
Angeles suburb of La Habra Heights
voted down a ban by about a 10-point
margin.
Hunter points to La Habra Heights as
a good example of a defeat for anti-fracturing forces. "It was put to a vote of the
people and it lost fairly substantially,"
he observes. "Anti-fossil-fuel people have
been unsuccessful at the state level. Their
strategy has been local-level attacks on
fracturing and what they call 'enhanced
oil operations.' Results have been mixed.
Activists have been far more successful
in jurisdictions without any oil and gas
production, so it is kind of a 'no harm-no
foul' situation in most circumstances, because there is really no drilling in areas
that have banned activities."
Altogether, about 20 counties or municipalities have considered such bans,
Zierman adds. "Environmentalists have
tried to create this notion of a growing
public sentiment to ban fracturing and
other oil and gas production techniques,
but the opposite is true," he says. "Of all
their efforts, their only successes have
been in places that have no oil and gas,
or where we don't even contest them."
He cites as purely symbolic the fracturing bans in the northern California
counties of Santa Cruz and Mendocino,
which have no oil and gas production.
CIPA did not contest the issue when
those counties voted on the issue, he recalls. Zierman goes on to note that in
Beverly Hills, Ca., which has a significant
amount of oil production but no fracturing,
the city banned fracturing without CIPA
opposition. CIPA actually worked with
the city on the ballot language to ensure
that it would not prevent other industry
activity, he says.
"Their only success in places with
production is one that has little," Zierman
says. "In areas of California such as Santa
Barbara County-which has major oil and
gas production and is the environmental
movement's birthplace . . . and also is a
very Democrat-leaning county-voters in
November rejected a ban 62-38 percent.
That is what actually has been happening."
Nevertheless, in their efforts to undermine oil and gas production, anti-industry activists continue to label all industry activities as "fracking," Zierman
observes. "When people inject steam,
they call it 'fracking,' and when people
perform waterfloods they call it 'fracking,'" he says. "They run around saying

we are going to ban 'fracking' when, in
fact, the ballot language typically proposes
to prevent all standard conventional techniques that have been used for a hundred
years."
The industry also is being blamed in
some circles for California's drought, he
says, pointing to a mid-April piece in the
Washington Post that faults such claims
as an excuse to stop production. As a
source quoted in the article, Zierman recounts, he pointed out hydraulic fracturing
in long-lateral wells is rare in California
because the state's geology largely lends
itself to vertical wells.

Other Issues
California producers suffered a setback
in early 2015, Zierman notes, when the
California Supreme Court declined to review a lower court's November 2014 decision that upheld a method for ad valorem
tax calculations employed by the tax assessor in Kern County, Ca. (AOGR, March
2015, pg. 18).
The association's other undertakings
include work on an environmental impact
report examining fracturing's potential
impacts. The report is required under
regulations that take effect in July following the 2013 passage of SB 4, which
covers well integrity requirements.
Under the regulations, companies' primary new burden is additional reporting,
Zierman says. "We have to give landowners and regulators notice," he says. "We
disclose our chemicals and water volumes."
Other requirements include well integrity testing, groundwater monitoring
before and after fracturing treatments,
and a fieldwide water quality study, Zierman says. The rule-making process also
incorporated testimony from scientists at
the California Council on Science and
Technology, who helped explain industry

practices, Thomas adds.
Although the regulation will require
additional documentation, Hunter predicts
companies will have little problem accommodating it. "There is not much appreciable change," he assesses. "We have
to demonstrate that operations do not
pose a threat to freshwater aquifers and
show that wells will not be fractured in
freshwater aquifers."

Annual Convention
Speakers at CIPA's annual meeting
will include Alex Epstein, author of The
Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, and Assemblywoman Shirley Webber, D-San
Diego, Zierman says.
According to CIPA, events get under
way on the morning of Thursday, June
11, with an Executive Committee meeting.
CIPA's Board of Directors will meet in
the early afternoon, followed by a Board
of Directors meeting for the California
Natural Gas Producers Association and
a welcome reception early that evening.
Activities on Friday, June 12, include
morning and afternoon Segway tours of
San Diego, as well as an afternoon golf
tournament. The evening features a dinner
cruise that is scheduled to begin at 7
p.m.
The next day begins with the industry
trade show, which will run from 7:30
a.m. to 4 p.m. A general session will
begin at 8:30 a.m. and continue throughout
the morning, followed by the membership
luncheon and an afternoon general session.
The CIPA gala dinner, awards and dance
will close the night.
Other activities available at times on
Saturday, June 13 include surfing lessons,
an activity that combines wine tasting
and painting, and a kids camp that runs
from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.
The conference concludes on Sunday,
June 14, with a send-off breakfast.
Ì

Anti-Industry Bills Likely To
Advance Through Committee
SACRAMENTO, CA.-Members of
the California Independent Petroleum
Association will gather for their annual
convention, June 11-14 in San Diego, to
glean information on the latest challenges,
which include anti-industry activists maneuvering in the 2015 California State
Assembly to stop underground injection

136 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

as well as oil and gas production, CIPA
officers say.
"Attacks on hydraulic fracturing were
extremely hot and heavy, and in recent
sessions were backed by powerful antifossil-fuel policymakers in Sacramento,
but that has shifted this year to underground injection control," says CIPA Di-

American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2015

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