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BUSINESS

injectwater. Those in-
jectionswould also help
squeeze more petroleum
from the Livermore Oil
Field, which has been in
production for more than
50 years.
E&B, based in Bakers-
field, sees the proposal as
essentially extending a
practice thatit already
performs on the site, a
company spokeswoman
said.
Environmentalists,
howeve r, consider the
step a potential threat to
groundwater. Lastyear,
they successfully pushed
for a ban onhydraulic
fracturing in Alameda

County,even though the

Livermore OilField is

the onlyactive field in

the county anddoes not

use fracking.

“There’s this overall

concern thatwe are sac-

rificing usable ground-

water to theoil industry

to let them expandoil

and gas operationswhen

we should be heading in

the other direction,” said

Hollin Kretzmann,staff

attorney with the Center

for Biological Diversity.

His group plans a

demonstration before the

5 p.m.start of thestate

hearing,which will be

held in the Livermore

City Councilchambers.

The division will not

make adecision on the

proposalat the hearing,

instead usingit to collect

public comments.The

proposal needs theap-

proval of both the divi-

sion and the federal En-

vironmental Protection

Agency to take effect.

All Californiaoil fields

contain large amounts of

brinywater mixed with

the petroleum. Once

brought to thesurface,

the water is separated

from theoil and can

sometimes be treated for

use in irrigation.More

often,oil companies put

it back underground,

often usingit to maintain

pressure within theiroil

fields.

That practice, howev-

er, has come under in-

creased scrutiny in re-

cent years after revela-

tions that thestate had,

for decades, allowed

companies to inject their

wastewater into un-

derg roundaquifers that

were supposed to be

protectedby federal law.

The Li vermore Oil

Field already has a small

zonewhere the federal

government allows un-

derg round injections.

The current proposal

would expand that zone

to co ver more of the field.

E&B maintains that

water currently sitting in

the underground forma-

tion containsoil and high

levels of boron and could

not realistically be used

for drinking or irriga-

tion. According to the

company’sapplication,

the zonewhere wastewa-

ter injectionswould

occur lies 1,500 feet be-

low thedeepest nearby

wells used for drinking

water, making contam-

ination unlikely.

Kretzmann argues that

contaminants could mi-

grate from one under-

ground zone to another

along thewells them-

selves. The water, he

said, could also move

along the Greenville

Fault —which runs

along theoil field’s east-

ern border —should the

fault rupture in an earth-

quake. A 5.8 magnitude

quake occurred on the

fault in1980.

David R.Baker is a San

Francisco Chronicle staff

writer. Email: dbaker@

sfchronicle.com

Driller seeks permit to injectoil well wastewater

Wells from page C1 “There’s this

overall concern

that we are

sacrificing usable

groundwater to

the oil industry.”

Hollin Kretzmann, staff

attorney withthe Center for

BiologicalDivers ity

Television networks
make moneyby charging
advertisers rates based
on viewership.It certain-
ly helpswhen you are
the onlychannelshow-
casing anevent.
During the firstRe-
publicandebate in Cleve-
land inAugust,Fox
News attracted awhop-
ping 24 million viewers
— in 2012, the largest
audience forsucha de-
bate was 7.1 million.
Knowing this,Trump
consistently bragged
about how he made net-
works a lot of moneyby
boosting ratings.He was
not wrong.
Of course, people
could followquip s and
commentaryabout the
debate onTwitter, and
plenty did.But impor-
tant events like presi-
dential debates are best
played out on television,
not 140charactersat a
time.
Which brings us to to
anotherflaw in Twitter.
The reasonsTrump likes
to useit — its brevity and
forum for unfettered
speech — are thevery
reasons thatthe compa-
ny can’t exploit his pop-
ularity.
“WhetherTrump says
somethinggood or bad,
reasonable or outra-
geous, andwhether us-
ers likeTrump or not,
they may find a reason to
engage with him through
replies or retweets as

long as he isactively

using the platform, all of

which means more en-

gagement,” said Pinar

Yildirim, an assistant

professor of marketing

with theUniversity of

Pennsylvania’sWharton

School.

But Trumpdoes not

really engage with his

audience.His modus

operandi is to tweet

something and then let

everyone else talkabout

it.

Trump also has a gift

— if you can callit that —

for bringing out the

worst in people.Whether

we’re speakingabout his

critics,who bashevery-

thing he says or does, or

his supporters,who bash

everything his critics say

or do.

The downside, Yildi-

rim said, iswhen Trump

supporters or opponents

become sodominant that

those with opposing

views feel alienated and

they become less en-

gaged.

Critics have already

chastisedTwitter for not

doing enough to battle

hate speech and protect

people from online

abuse. Throw in some of

Trump’s morevocal and

vicious followers, and

you create an environ-

mentwhere racism,

misogyny and plain

cruelty can thrive.

That’s not the kind of

business most companies

like to bragabout, espe-

ciallywhen theywant to

woo advertisers.Twitter

seems to have recognized

this, makingdeals with

the likes of theNational

FootballLeague to

broadcast football games

and other, moreadvertis-

er-friendlyfare, on mo-

bile apps andInternet-

connected TVs.But those

deals can’t ch ange the

short, text-focused na-

ture ofTwitter’s core

service.It doesn’t seem

likely thatTrumpwould

arrange tostreamWhite

House press briefings on

Twitter, as fond as he is

of tweeting.

Twitter is not alone in

facing this problem.

Plenty of people use the

online discussion service

Reddit tochat ab out

news. But Reddit can’t

find away to make mon-

ey, becauseit, too,suffers

from severe trolling.

There are certainly

trolls onFacebook.But

users can better control

their experience. And the

social network is better

known as a placewhere

friends andfamily swap

news, videos and photos

than onewhere you

exchange taunts and

insults with complete

strangers.

“It doesn’t take age-

nius to connect thedots

of a rise inabuse on

Twitter — bothits quan-

tity and savagery,” Umair

Haque, director ofHavas

Media Labs, recently

wrote in theHarvard

BusinessReview. “Twit-

ter’s central problem is

low-quality interaction.

Today, we live in a world

of strikingly dismally

low-quality interactions.

Can you remember the

last timeyou really en-

joyed going to a big-box

store, bank, hospital?”

Trump may enjoy

broadcasting his views

on Twitter. He doesn’t

care whetherit makes

anyone elsewant to use

the service.There’s Twit-

ter’s problem — in less

than 140characters.

Thomas Lee is a San

Francisco Chronicle

columnist. Email:tlee@

sfchronicle.com Twitter:

@ByTomLee

Trump tweets don’t translate to profit

Leefrom page C1

Josh Haner / NewYorkTimes 2015

DonaldTrump likesto be provocati ve in 140 characters.He tweets and lets others talkabout what he sa ys.

Facebook founder
Mark Zuckerberg and his
wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan,
have vowed to put their
enormouswealth toward
philanthropic causes.
Now the couple are put-
ting infrastructure in
place to makesure their
money and efforts will
make an impact on policy
as well.
Zuckerberg and Chan
have hired a top political
operative to lead the next
phase of their philan-
thropicwork at the Chan
ZuckerbergInitiati ve, the
limited liability company
they setup in 2015 to
conductcharitable ef-
forts. DavidPlouffe,who
managed Barack Obama’s
2008 presidential cam-
paign and ischief adviser
and a board memberat
Uber, is leaving the ride-
hailing company to join
the ChanZuckerberg
Initiati ve as president of
policy andadvocacy.
In ad dition,Zucker-
berg and Chan are form-
ing a public policy board
of formergovernment
officials and other experts
in the fields of education
and science.The new
board will be ledby Ken-
neth Mehlman,who man-
aged President George W.
Bush ’s 2004 re-election

campaign and is now

head ofglob al public

affairsat Kohlberg Kravis

Roberts, the private equi-

ty firm.Mehlman will

volunteer part of his time

to the new board,which is

recruiting other members

who will also serve part

time.

The additions under-

line howZuckerberg and

Chan are pushing to give

their philanthropicwork

—which has focused on

education, science and

curing disease — a greater

voice inWashington and

among movements and

advocacy groupsacross

the country. The couple’s

clout stems primarily

from theirsubstantial

fortune;when they an-

nounced theywould give

99 percent of theirFace-

bookshares tocharitable

causes, their holdings

were worth more than $45

billionat the time.

“You can makechange,

but in order forit to be

sust ainable,you need to

build a movement to

supportit,” Zuckerberg

said in an interview. “No

amount of private re-

search or philanthropy is

going toshift that.At the

end of the day, the govern-

ment hasfar more re-

sources than any individ-

ual organizationdoes.”

Zuckerberg and Chan,

who li ve only a few miles

from the ChanZucker-

berg Initiati ve’s office in

Palo Alto, are regularly

involved in its direction

and majordecisions.The

couple have identified

several main causes,

including curing all dis-

ease, towhich they have

pledged $3 billion, and

changing theway chil-

dren are educated

through personalized

learning, underwhich

teaching is more tailored

to ea ch ch ild.

In his new role,Plouffe

will run the ChanZucker-

berg Initiati ve’s team of a

few dozen people on a

day-to-day basis.Plouffe

described the job in terms

similar to a campaign

effort.

“Curing disease, im-

proving education

through personalized

learning and building

technology and tools to

help organizations reach

their full potential are

areas with widespread

support and massive

potential for mobilization,

greatstorytelling and

smart policy engage-

ment,” he wrote in aFace-

book post.

Travis Kalanick, Uber’s

chief executive, described

Plouffe’s departure as

amicable.Plouffe will

remain onUber’s board

and continueadvising

Kalanick.

Zuckerberg and Chan

unveiled the ChanZuck-

erbergInitiati ve not long

after the 2015 birth of

their daughter, Maxima

ChanZuckerberg, known

as Max. In a letter written

to her thatwas posted on

Facebookat the time,

Zuckerberg and Chan

outlined several reasons

for directing their philan-

thropy toward “a dvanc-

ing human potential and

promoting equality” for

those inMax’s generation.

Almost immediately,

howeve r, Zuckerberg and

Chan came under fire for

the organizationalstruc-

ture of the initiative. Un-

der a limited liability

company, they are bound

by fewer rules when it

comes to directing their

assets than theywould be

in other philanthropic

vehicles.The structure

also provides certain tax

benefits.The couple have

used some of the money

to in vest in startups relat-

ed to their educational

and scientific interests.

Plouffe andMehlman

join Jim Shelton, a former

deputy secretary of the

Department ofEducation

brought on inMay to

oversee efforts in educa-

tion, and Cori Bargmann,

aneuroscientist formerly

of RockefellerUniversity,

tapped in September as

president of science. Bri-

an Pinkerton, a former

Amazon executive, was

namedchief technology

officer in October.

Mike Isaac is aNew York

Times writer.

Chan Zuckerberg Initiati ve ge ts political

By Mike Isaac

Liz Hafalia /The Chronicle 2015

David Plouffe will leave his role as chief adviserat Uberto become president

of policy and advocacy at the ChanZuckerbergInitiati ve.