2 fracking bans pass in California, while a third fails
San Benito and Mendocino counties voted Tuesday to ban fracking in their counties, but an important third measure on the ballot — in Santa Barbara County — failed.
As Huffington Post points out, the state Senate earlier this year narrowly voted down a measure that would have placed a moratorium on the oil-extraction practice in the state. Santa Cruz County and the city of Los Angeles have bans in place.
More from HuffPo:
Both counties [San Benito and Mendocino] lie on the Monterey Shale, a gigantic rock formation beneath the earth’s surface that’s estimated to contain more than 10 billion barrels of oil. Voters in Santa Barbara county, where oil and gas companies spent $5.7 million in support of fracking, defeated a similar initiative.
