Gilmour, Jared. “In California and Beyond, Drilling for Oil as Water Runs Short.” The Christian Science Monitor. N.p., 10 Apr. 2015. Web. 23 Aug. 2015.
As the drought in California has become more and more of a problem, water consumption has gone down tremendously and the question has become whether or not oil companies do the same with their water usage. Although California is using much less water than other states in the oil industry, it is still using up precious water that could be used in more effective ways in the drought. The water is being reused by farmers, but this contaminated water could be destructive to humans and other animals.
This article pushes for the end of oil production which would be best for the environment in California and around the world. With all of the cuts that have been going on in terms of water-usage around California, there should be some regulations of sorts put on the oil industry in California which use thousands of gallons of water to find oil. Although the companies may claim that they are reusing the water, they give them to farmers and that water is used on crops which hurts the wildlife that feeds on the crops and is even more destructive to our environment than no oil drilling in California would be.
At far as I can tell, oil drilling is not the central money-maker for California and in times of drought, we definitely need to cut back. I think it probably would be best to eliminate oil drilling in California for the time being– if we continue drilling, even if the drought lessens, the amount of water still being used to drill will prevent the state from making a full/faster recovery. I also thought this article was very interesting because I never thought about drilling as a major issue in terms of water usage– I always think about almond farming and bottled water first.