There is a long tradition of Hollywood actors using “celebrity science” to advance a political agenda. Nowhere is that tradition more apparent than in the home of Hollywood itself — California — were celebrities are involved in a misguided effort to ban hydraulic fracturing. If successful, this is an effort that would cripple California’s economy and – ironically – make us even more dependent on foreign oil.

The latest blow to the actor/activist narrative – and the latest good news for Californians who care about the quality of their air and water — came earlier this month when the independent California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) released Volume II and Volume III of its peer-reviewed study on the impacts of well stimulation techniques, including fracking, in the state.

This comprehensive 2,300-page study adds to the already extensive body of knowledge about the oil and gas development generally and about hydraulic fracturing in particular. The study confirms what scientists and regulators have said for years: fracking is fundamentally safe and involves manageable risks.

Despite claims made by anti-energy activists — and the Hollywood actors to whom they provide talking points — the CCST study confirms that there have been no cases of groundwater contamination or induced seismicity (earthquakes) caused by the thousands of fracking operations that have taken place in California for more than 50 years.

The CCST study comes just after a landmark report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which, following five years of work, found that “hydraulic fracturing activities have not led to widespread, systemic impacts to drinking water resources.”

Check our Energy In Depth’s new video – Hollywood Actors and Activists Debunked by Independent Peer-Reviewed Study on Fracking – to see how the myths perpetrated by actors and activists in California are contradicted by the facts.