To: State Director Jim Kenna, Bureau of Land Management

Protect California: Don't Allow Fracking on Public Lands

I was pleased to hear that the federal Bureau of Land Management postponed all oil lease sales in California for the remainder of this year and is now undertaking a new Environmental Impact Statement as well as a statewide analysis of the threats associated with fracking to California.

I'm writing to urge you to continue to halt new oil lease sales on California's public lands while these studies are completed.

The best way to protect our treasured public lands along with our air, water, health and climate from fracking is to simply prohibit this inherently dangerous form of fossil fuel extraction. There's no better place to start than by banning fracking on our public lands. It would make no sense to go forward with new oil and gas lease sales before your studies are complete.

Please prohibit new oil lease sales on California's public lands while you study fracking's threats to our Golden State. Critical decisions about opening more of California public lands to oil and gas development and fracking cannot be informed decisions until your studies are complete.

Why is this important?

Fracking is currently prohibited in the state of New York while the risks of this fossil fuel extraction process are studied. According to that state's health commissioner, "The time to ensure the impacts on public health are properly considered is before a state permits drilling."

We agree. That's why, here in California, we're urging the Bureau of Land Management to continue its moratorium on new oil lease sales while it studies fracking's threats to the Golden State.

Nationwide the Bureau estimates that 90 percent of new oil and gas wells on federal land are fracked. In California much of the Monterey Shale's estimated 15.4 billion barrels of frackable oil is under federal lands. All that fracking potential means our cherished public lands face severe air and water pollution, animal and plant species that depend on those lands face habitat loss, and humans living and recreating on or near these public lands suffer many health threats.

The best way to protect these national treasures, as well as our climate, is to simply prohibit this inherently dangerous form of fossil fuel extraction -- and what better place to start than by banning fracking on our public lands?

In California we have the chance to take one big step toward that goal.

Please take action now to tell the BLM to maintain its hold on new oil and gas leasing on California's public lands.