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The American authorities have “slashed” the amount of recoverable oil from the vast California Monterey shale deposits by a whopping 96 per cent.

Last week the Chief Executive of Occidental Petroleum, a mega-fracker, told analysts and investors if “towns don’t want us there, we won’t be there.” What he failed to mention is that they’ve got the Governor in their pockets doing the dirty work for them.

They came in their thousands from across the Sunshine State. On Saturday, the largest anti-fracking rally and protest in California's history took place in the state capital of Sacramento.

A new video parody, entitled “Frack Water”, portrays a Jerry Brown look-alike outside a southern California oil field accompanied by a California oil industry representative. It's the latest escalation in Oil Change International's "Big Oil Brown" campaign, pushing the governor to impose a ban on fracking for oil and gas in California.

California remains gripped in a vice-like drought, with last year being the driest on record in the state. Last month, the situation was so bad that it prompted Governor Jerry Brown to declare that the sunshine state was in a drought emergency. "We ought to be ready for a long, continued, persistent effort to restrain our water use," Brown said.

If the Governor were to be truly serious about protecting Californians struggling with the drought, he would put a halt to fracking in the state immediately.

The letter, with 21 signatories, suggests that fracking can be done safely with proper regulation, and that the economic benefits of fracking up California outweigh the inherent risks to the environment of the extraction practice. But even a very quick analysis of the signatories and the arguments they put forward will show another story. In short, this letter from scientists was made possible by the oil industry.

It’s time for Governor Brown to make a decision. He can be Big Oil Brown and move California down the road of fracking our communities and climate. Or he can say no to our dirty past, stop fracking, and move California towards a cleaner future.

Last night, dozens of concerned Californians descended on the Oakland convention center for a "scoping meeting" regarding the California Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources "environmental impact report" process that is kicking off to study the impacts of fracking in the state.