Finnegan, M. (2014, August 18). In Santa Barbara County, oil firms and environmentalists square off. Los Angeles Times.  Retrieved September 7, 2014, from

http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-santa-barbara-fracking-20140818-story.html#page=1

Oil is a very useful and productive fossil fuel, but the way that it is acquired is a very flawed system. Some of the methods to obtain oil include fracking, steam injecting, and other drilling methods. In order to use steam injection as a method operators have to heat water which can be wasting scarce groundwater. Currently in Santa Barbara 1,167 wells already use this system. Drilling in wells has become a problem due to the danger of contaminating ground water. The state has already shut down eleven wells in order to check toxic leakages. Currently the counties of Santa Barbara, San Benito and Butte are making efforts to ban oil extraction methods with a ballot measure in November that could ban petroleum operations.  However oil corporations are now trying to fight measures and nearly 1.4 million dollars have been put into a campaign committee for energy independence.

This article shows that oil extraction is affecting environmental science, and that the legislation on oil systems needs to change. Oil corporations are making money, no matter how much they are damaging the environment. The oil extraction system is wasting water that we need so much now that we are in a drought. It is shocking that even though oil corporations know they are damaging areas they still want to fight it and are forming campaigns against banning petroleum operations.