Don’t Frack with Los Angeles and Culver City:
Hundreds Expected at Rally For Ban
September 22 Day of Action Will Unite Activists Around the Globe to Demand Clean, Sustainable Energy Solutions
LOS ANGELES – On September 22, Food & Water Watch, Citizens Coalition for a Safe Community, Baldwin Hills Oil Watch, Frack Free Culver City, and statewide and national organizations will convene the event Don’t Frack with Los Angeles and Culver City: Safe Fracking is a Fairy Tale, just one of over 100 actions taking place around the world as part of the Global Frackdown, an international day of action to ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
Culver City borders the largest urban oilfield in the nation and one of the largest fracking sites in California. The California Department of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) is expected to release state fracking guidelines this month that will heavily favor oil and gas companies. Faced with the threat of polluted drinking water and declining home values, thousands of concerned citizens in Culver City have already called on their city council to ban the increasingly controversial energy extraction method that involves blasting millions of gallons of water and carcinogenic chemicals underground and has been linked to water contamination and climate change. Culver City was the first city in California to call on the state to ban fracking. Los Angeles City Council has also introduced a resolution calling on the state to halt fracking. To date, over 250 communities around the world have taken action against fracking.
Who: Food & Water Watch, Citizens Coalition for a Safe Community, Baldwin Hills Oil Watch, Frack Free Culver City, in partnership with Credo Action, 350.org, Democracy for America, Friends of the Earth and Center for Biological Diversity
What: Concerned residents from Baldwin Hills and Culver City and activists from all over Los Angeles will gather in Culver City to send the message that “safe fracking” is a fairy tale. Over breakfast, elected officials, experts on fracking, community leaders and local residents will give a brief update on fracking activity in the Los Angeles Basin. Fairy tale characters, warlocks, ogres, and activists will hand out materials on fracking and hold a rally in downtown Culver City.
Where: 9770 Culver Boulevard, Culver City [map]
When: Saturday, September 22, 2012, 10:00 a.m. to noon
Interviews available: Brenna Norton, Southern California region organizer with Food & Water Watch, is available to provide comment and additional background on the campaign. Additionally, elected officials, experts on fracking, representatives from Citizens Coalition for a Safe Community, Baldwin Hills Oil Watch, Frack Free Culver City, and concerned residents will be on hand for interviews.
Please RSVP to: Brenna Norton, 323-843-8446, bnorton@fwwatch.org (event-day phone 310-266-4481)
Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainable. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public control.www.foodandwaterwatch.org
