California Officials Sue US Govt. On Plan For Fracking On Public Land - State Legal Chief

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2020) The governor of California and three of the US state's agencies are suing the Trump administration over its plan to lift a five-year legal ban and allow commercial fracking for oil on public land, State Attorney General Xavier Becerra said on Friday.

"Becerra, Governor Gavin Newsom, the California Air Resources board (CARB), the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) today filed a lawsuit," the attorney general said in a press release.

The lawsuit challenges the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plan to open up more than 1 million acres of public lands in Central California to oil and gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing or fracking, the release said.

"The lawsuit ...alleges that BLM's environmental review of the project failed to fully evaluate the ... adverse impacts on ... Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare, and Ventura Counties, and requests that the court set aside the decision," the release said.

In November, Newsom announced a moratorium on new high pressure injection wells and a scientific review of all permits to frack in California. Fracking opponents say the process releases toxic air contaminants, such as benzene and formaldehyde that cause cancer.