Four Fracking Bills Advance in California Legislature

On April 15, 2013, four bills that would regulate hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in California received passing votes in the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources.

We previously summarized each of the four bills under consideration – AB 7 (Wieckowski), AB 288 (Levine), AB 669 (Stone), and AB 982 (Williams). Since that summary, Assembly Member Wieckowski substantially amended AB 7, narrowing it from a comprehensive bill addressing a wide array of fracking-related issues to a bill principally focused on disclosure requirements regarding fracking operations, including an elaborate treatment of trade secret information. The narrowing of AB 7 leaves Senator Pavley’s bill, SB 4, as the lead comprehensive fracking bill now pending in the legislature. As we reported last week, SB 4 recently survived a vote in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water and is scheduled for a May 1, 2013, hearing before the Committee on Environmental Quality.

At Monday’s hearing, AB 7 passed with unanimous support, with Committee members Grove, Bigelow, Garcia, Muratsuchi, Patterson, Stone, and Williams voting in favor of Assembly Member Wieckowski’s bill. The vote on the three remaining bills split 6-3 on party lines, with Democrats Chesbro, Garcia, Muratsuchi, Skinner, Stone, and Williams in favor and Republicans Grove, Bigelow, and Patterson opposed. All four bills were re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations.

The next major hearing on fracking-related legislation is set for April 29, 2013, when the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources will consider AB 649 (Nazarian), AB 1301 (Bloom), and AB 1323 (Mitchell).

We will continue to monitor the progress of these bills and provide updates as warranted.

For more information regarding California fracking issues, please contact Eric Adair. Follow Eric on Twitter: Follow @kericadair

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Tagged → AB 1301, AB 1323, AB 288, AB 649, AB 669, AB 7, AB 982, Adrin Nazarian, Bob Wieckowski, Das Williams, Fracking, Fran Pavley, Holly Mitchell, Hydraulic fracturing, Marc Levine, Mark Stone, Richard Bloom, SB 4