Measure P Is Not Flawed

It is not Measure P that is flawed. What is flawed is a county, state, and federal government that fails to protect the environment, health, and property of its citizenry from oil drilling techniques that have proven toxic and prone to disastrous accidents. What is flawed is leaving an industry, with a long history of deception, to self-monitor activities that have potential egregious consequences and calling it protection. What is flawed is a system that allows the opinions of locally elected representatives and governmental employee unions to be unduly influenced by corporate donations. What is flawed is a news media that can be rented (for $7 million oil dollars, to date) to enable the suppression of the multitude of voices that advocate on behalf of its public. And what is flawed is the suggestion that people should hesitate to establish protections of their rights for fear of litigation.

Measure P was crafted by Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, a San Francisco law firm that has specialized in natural resource and environmental law since 1980, acclaimed for helping communities like ours protect local resources. Measure P bans fracking, cyclic steam injection, and acidization because they each pose an extreme threat to human health, water and the environment. It exempts all conventional means of oil extraction as well as all current fracking, cyclic steam injection, and acidization projects, not because they are safe, but to expressly preserve the rights and jobs of those already invested in such activities. Measure P is readily available for anyone to read.

The oil industry will seek to undo Measure P’s protections, should it pass, as it has undone the environmental restrictions that would otherwise protect our county. Our choice lies in whether we choose to fight, or give over home and country. Vote yes on Measure P.