An oil company has proposed the first fracking project off the California coast in more than a decade. On Wednesday, California regulators recommended that the state object to the project due to concerns that it could increase the risk of spills.
What happened: The California Coastal Commission published two staff reports, both of which recommended that the Commission object to a proposal from oil company DCOR, LLC to conduct hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, on 16 of its wells off the coast of Ventura County.
Why it matters: The recommendation turns up the heat in the Trump administration’s ongoing conflict with California over offshore oil production and how much power the state should have to weigh in on federal decisions that impact its coast.
Context: In January, DCOR asked the Trump administration to greenlight a five-year fracking operation that it estimated could nearly quadruple the number of barrels of oil it produces each day on its 45-year-old platform.
