Last weekend the movie “San Andreas” premiered, and became the top-grossing film in the U.S. for that weekend. The movie is filled with action, explosions, thrills, and Dwayne Johnson’s large biceps. Like many summer movies, it’s meant to be watched as an escape or something fun to pass the time.
I wish I felt the same.
As a California resident, living on the San Andreas fault line, it’s true that I may take the “earthquake movie” a little more seriously than other viewers. And though the threat of the “big one” is a daily thought for me, it’s not the naturally occurring earthquakes that worry me the most.
The earthquakes that really worry me are caused by the oil and gas industry who continue to expand fracking operations across the western United States - despite a worrying increase in earthquakes around fracking sites.
The same day that “San Andreas” debuted in movie theatres, a very real-life disaster was occurring at the Oklahoma State House. Republican Governor Mary Fallin signed a new law that allows the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (which is run by three Republican elected commissioners) to continue to have control over oil and gas drilling across the state. The bill prohibits cities and towns from banning fracking. Oklahoma joins Texas as the second state to outlaw fracking bans.
This new law comes despite a staggering increase in earthquakes in Oklahoma - more than 2,500 in the past five years, including 20 small earthquakes in one day in August 2014.
In my state, fracking is doubly concerning - not only because we are already earthquake-prone, but because we are in the midst of a crippling drought. Fracking is an operation which requires a large amount of water that is rendered unusable afterward. Between the environmental threats caused by fracking and the increased risk for earthquakes in my state and others, I am strongly opposed to fracking operations.
It may be fun to imagine a disaster on the scale of the movie “San Andreas,” but we must realize that we are closer than we think we are to real destruction. Fracking must be curtailed.
Lou Vince is a Marine Corps Reserves veteran, LAPD police lieutenant, local elected official, and committed Democrat. In May 2015 he announced he would be challenging first-term Republican Representative Steve Knight for his seat next year. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has included Knight on its “one-term wonders” list - which includes House members elected in 2014 that are being targeted for defeat in 2016. Visit www.LouVince.com to get involved.