Sacramento — During a year of an unprecedented epidemic, record fires and record heat, the California agency in charge of regulating oil and gas drilling, CalGEM, has approved over 1540 new oil and gas drilling permits so far.
Faced with this expansion of fossil fuel drilling in California, Last Chance Alliance, a coalition of over 750 climate, environmental justice, and public health groups, has launched an ad campaign calling on Governor Gavin Newson to phase out oil drilling as part of his plan to address the climate crisis, according to a press release from the alliance.
The ads direct audiences to fuelingtheflames.org where they can take action.
Since Newsom become Governor in January 2019, his regulators have approved a total of 7071 oil and gas drilling permits in California, according to a data analysis from Consumer Watchdog and the FracTracker Alliance.
In fact, 185% more oil and gas drilling permits were issued in the first six months of this year than in the same six months last year under Governor Newsom, the groups reported. The permit numbers and locations are posted and updated on an interactive map at the website: NewsomWellWatch.com
To illustrate how Newsom’s expansion of oil and gas drilling in California has helped fuel the climate crisis, two 900-foot vertical billboards, featuring floating embers over a photo of a California fire, are located at the corner of 5th and L—just blocks from the Sacramento Capitol.
Other digital billboards can be found along the 5, 99, and Bus. 80 highways around downtown Sacramento, all calling on Newsom to take action to phase out oil extraction in a state that California politicians constantly tout as the nation’s “green” and “progressive” leader.
View a video of the live action billboard: https://vimeo.com/465531497/0ba55f146c
See photos of other billboards: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1Wx8QkHKdImZh5xXRc9vtj8Ovc9x1yfn_
The ad campaign was launched the day after Governor Newsom signed a controversial executive order making California the first state in the nation to pledge to conserve 30 percent of land and coastal waters by 2030, joining 38 countries in that conservation commitment.
While some environmentalists lauded the order, other groups weren’t impressed, with Food and Water Watch urging the governor instead “to go back to the drawing board and tackle the state’s biggest polluters head-on.” The text of yesterday’s executive order can be found here and a copy can be found here.
Radio ads also started playing today on popular Sacramento stations, voiced by frontline leader Nalleli Cobo, who was sickened by oil wells across the street from her childhood home in South Los Angeles starting at age nine. Now nineteen years old, Nalleli is battling cancer.
Nalleli said about the ads: “We hope that Governor Newsom will get the message loud and clear. His announcement banning new gas-powered cars by 2035 doesn’t provide the protection that millions of Californians living near oil wells need right now.”
Cesar Aguirre, a community organizer in Kern community featured in another radio spot, lives around oil wells as well.
Aguirre says in the ad, “You’ve expanded oil production in my community, where we breathe the industry’s toxic pollution every day. California’s frontline communities need real action.”
The radio ads point out that Governor Newsom, in spite of his “climate leader” image, has expanded oil production in communities of color and call on him to phase out oil drilling. His administration is supposed to issue a draft health and safety rule before year’s end. Last Chance Alliance has demanded a 2500-foot set back between oil wells and homes, schools and communities.
California is one of two states in the U.S. — the other Alaska — that doesn’t require setbacks between homes, schools, hospitals and other facilities. Texas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Dakota and other oil and gas producing states all have setbacks.
Listen to the radio ads: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1-yklc8Q24BqYzvQNz64fT-Y7w7S9HdHC
Also happening today, Last Chance Alliance activists took to the smoky skies in Greenpeace USA’s hot air balloon over wildfire-impacted Chico to tell Governor Gavin Newsom that he must phase out fossil fuels and stop exacerbating the climate crisis that is worsening California’s wildfires.
The text of the radio ads follows:
RADIO SPOT 1:
Narrator: Nalleli Cobo
V.O. — Governor Newsom, I’m Nalleli and I grew up across the street from oil drilling. Millions of Californians have been sickened from oil wells near our homes and schools, like I was starting when I was just nine years old. The more oil we drill, the more pollution we breathe. Stop fueling the flames of California’s climate emergency. Phase out oil drilling and protect us with health and safety setbacks now.
ANNOUNCER: Governor Newsom has expanded oil production, drilling and polluting in communities of color. Take action at fueling the flames dot ORG. Fueling the flames dot org. Paid for by Last Chance Alliance.
RADIO SPOT 2:
Narrator: Cesar Aguirre
V.O. — Governor Newsom, I’m Cesar, a community organizer in Kern County. You’ve expanded oil production in my community, where we breathe the industry’s toxic pollution every day. California’s frontline communities need real action. Stop fueling the flames of our climate emergency. Phase out oil drilling and protect us with health and safety setbacks now.
ANNOUNCER: Governor Newsom has expanded oil production, drilling and polluting in communities of color. Take action at fueling the flames dot ORG. Fueling the flames dot org. Paid for by Last Chance Alliance.
Background: Big Oil Regulatory Capture in California
The reason why the Newsom administration is approving increasing numbers of oil and gas permits is due to the uncomfortable fact that the oil industry is the most powerful corporate lobby in California and exercises enormous influence over the Governor’s Office, the State Legislature and the State’s regulatory panels, commissions and panels.
Last year the Western States Petroleum Association, the most powerful lobbying organization in the state, pumped more money into lobbying than any other organization in California, spending a total of $8.8 million. The San Ramon-based Chevron pumped the third most money into lobbying, a total of $5.9 million. The lobbying expenses of the two oil industry giants came to a total of $14.7 million.
During the first quarter of 2020, at the same time that the Newsom Administration approved 1,623 total oil drilling permits, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) spent $1,089,702 lobbying state officials.
Chevron spent even more: $1,638,497 in the first quarter of 2020 to influence legislators, the Governor’s Office and other state officials. The two oil industry giants combined to spend a total of $2,728,199 lobbying from January 1-March 31.
In the second quarter of 2020, WSPA spent $1,220,986 while Chevron spent $974,322 on lobbying in California, a total of $2,195,308.
Big Oil’s tentacles extend far and wide in California politics. Lobbying is just one of the methods that Big Oil uses in California to exercise inordinate influence over California regulators. WSPA and Big Oil wield their power in 6 major ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) serving on and putting shills on regulatory panels; (4) creating Astroturf groups; (5) working in collaboration with media; (6) creating alliances with labor unions; and (6) contributing to non profit organizations.
A classic example of deep regulatory capture in California is how Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the President of the Western States Petroleum Association, chaired the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create “marine protected areas” in Southern California at the same time that she was lobbying for new oil drilling off the West Coast. Yet corporate “environmental” groups strongly supported the oil lobbyist-led process, claiming it was “open, transparent and inclusive” when it was anything but.
For more information, read: www.counterpunch.org/…