Measure G rejected in San Luis Obispo County

San Luis Obispo County voters have rejected Measure G that would have banned new oil and gas well production in unincorporated areas of the county, including fracking.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting in Tuesday’s election, No on G had 55.7 percent of the vote to 44.2 percent for Yes on G.

Supporters of Measure G say it’s aimed at protecting groundwater supplies from new oil and gas production including fracking.

“That threat is real”, said Yes on G campaign spokesperson Charles Varni, “certainly the expansion of the Arroyo Grande Oil Field by 481 new wells, expanding production by 1,000 percent, increasing the amount of toxic wastewater injected underground from 140,000 gallons to 1,400,000 gallons a day.”

Industry financed the No on G campaign that had broad support across the county.

“It would lead to a shutdown of the oil and gas industry and that will have some severe impacts in terms of loss of jobs, a loss of tax revenue, economic activity for the county”, said No on G campaign spokesperson Matt Cunningham Tuesday night , “we put everything we had into building a broad coalition to inform the voters about the real impacts of Measure G.”

There is no fracking going on anywhere in the county currently and Measure G would have allowed continued operation and maintenance of existing oil and gas wells.