The box of petitions, with all the organizations who helped gather signatures.
On Saturday, over 8,000 people
marched in Oakland to call for a ban on fracking in California. It was the largest public protest against fracking in history.
On Monday, we took it a step further when our coalition delivered 113,722 signatures to Governor Jerry Brown (including 34,000+ from California). Our online petition—sponsored by Daily Kos, 350.org, Courage Campaign, Food & Water Watch and others—was simple: Jerry Brown has made fighting climate change a top priority, so he must follow the lead of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and ban fracking in California.
I arrived in Sacramento with a huge box of petition signatures and a 4 PM appointment in the governor’s office. Daily Kos users Curtis Paullins (cooper888) and Jann Dorothy (Kestrel) were there to give me a warm Sacramento welcome, as did Sacramento resident Kyran McCann. Dan Jacobson, legislative director of Environment California, gave us an invaluable pep talk on what to expect before going into the governor’s office.
As we walked toward the Capitol with our huge box of petitions, we were joined by Linda Capato of 350.org (who helped organize the march) and Vern Goehring of Food & Water Watch.
Read below the fold to find out what happened once we got inside the State Capitol.
The media was already there to greet us. As we stood outside the governor’s office and the cameras zoomed in on our petitions, a reporter from Capitol Television News asked me why we thought we could prevail if Gov. Brown had not taken action on fracking last year.
My answer? Last year we did not have 8,000 people marching in the streets to demand an end to fracking. Last year we did not have 113,722 petition signatures demanding that Governor Brown take action now. It was time to pay a visit, and we had an appointment with some of Jerry Brown's top policy aides on this issue.
As we walked into the governor’s office, the receptionist was unsure about the huge box of petitions—and asked us to take it to the mail room. But we said that the staff members were expecting our petition, so they allowed us into the back room.
Linda Capato of 350.org speaks to the governor's senior staff about fracking, Daily Kos members Curtis Paullins & Paul Hogarth look on.
We met with several of the governor’s top staff—including Senior Adviser Cliff Rechtschaffen, Deputy Legislative Secretary Martha Guzman Aceves and Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources head Steven Bohlen.
The staff graciously accepted our petition, and as we met for about 20 minutes they reminded us that Brown has long been a champion for fighting climate change. We replied that it was precisely because of his good record that we expect him to take a leadership role and ban fracking in California. All in all, the meeting was productive and helpful.
As Curtis Paullins (cooper88) noted in our de-brief later: “the march had a huge impact, and the governor’s office is listening. Our petition delivery today was the exclamation mark.”
Group shot as we leave the Governor's office (L to R): Linda Capato of 350.org, Paul Hogarth of Daily Kos, Kyran McCann and Curtis Paullins cooper888