Photo by David M’Oto for News & Letters

Oakland, Cal.—About 90 members of environmental and community groups gathered at Frank Ogawa Plaza for “Oakland Frackdown” on Oct. 19 to protest passage of State Senate Bill 4 authorizing hydraulic fracturing in California. Led by a giant condor puppet, marchers to the State Building carried signs and a 50-foot scroll listing scores of chemicals used in fracking.

Supporters, some of them so-called progressive legislators, argue that fracking has been going on in the state for 50 years and now will finally be regulated. Actually, the new law requires state approval of all fracking permits in California for the next two years provided the companies disclose to regulators the chemicals used in the process.

—Marcher