Los Angeles, CA — In a year of record fires and an unprecedented pandemic, California oil regulators more than doubled the approval of permits in 2020 to drill new oil and gas production wells.
The California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) of the Department of Conservation, the state’s oil and gas regulatory agency, approved more than 1,700 new well permits in 2020, Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance reported,
“At the same time, the Newsom Administration failed to meet its own New Year’s Eve deadline for a draft rule designating the safe distance for drilling from a community, giving itself until Spring,” the two groups stated in a press release. “Public interest groups who have pushed for a 2,500-foot setback are troubled by the delay. States such as Colorado have instituted setbacks of 2,000 feet.”
“Largely because of a moratorium on high pressure cyclic steaming—a dangerous technique burning carbon-emitting natural gas to make steam used to coax stubborn oil out of the ground-- permits for all types of drilling dropped 14%. Very few drilling permits were used to drill new wells -- only 60 new wells were drilled in 2020,” the groups said.
The two groups updated the permit numbers and locations on an interactive map at the website: http://www.NewsomWellWatch.com. Newsom Well Watch also links to video footage capturing leaking infrastructure at half a dozen well sites receiving drilling permits near communities under the Newsom Administration.
“These twin developments of putting off a setback between people and oil drilling with a doubling of permits for oil and gas production wells that foul the air and water near communities reflects a failure by the Newsom Administration to show it is serious about protecting communities living with oil and gas extraction every day,” said Consumer Advocate Liza Tucker. “Instead, it is prioritizing oil profits and continued climate-killing emissions over public health.”
“Roughly ten percent of permits issued are for wells too close to communities, according to Tucker. “Based on peer-reviewed studies, a setback of at least one mile is warranted to decrease risk of cancer, cardiovascular, pulmonary, and neurological diseases. Communities are demanding a minimum setback of 2,500 feet between themselves and oil drilling operations.”
More than two million Californians live within half a mile of a well, while seven million live within a mile. A draft rule was due by December 31, 2020.
Meantime, oil regulators at the California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) kept a “breakneck pace” of granting permits for the drilling of new oil and gas production wells in 2020, driving them up 116% over 2019, according to the two groups. Air and water-degrading emissions from such wells present the biggest health risk to nearby communities. Rolling in permits for all other types of drilling, the number of permits fell 14%.
“California may call itself a climate leader, but the state has done nothing to address the harms of oil and gas extraction within its borders,” said Kyle Ferrar of the FracTracker Alliance. “The number of wells actually drilled may have decreased, but it is strictly a result of the downturn in the market resulting from Covid-19. Policy-makers should take this opportunity to create a strategy for the future of California oil and gas extraction that prioritizes the health and safety of Frontline Communities and the climate.”
“While permits to drill new production wells soared, a Newsom moratorium issued in November 2019 on dangerous high-pressure cyclic steaming permits contributed to an overall plunge of 82% in permits granted for new wells using dangerous extraction techniques to pry oil from increasingly depleted wells,” according to Ferrar.
Chevron’s use of cyclic steaming led to a major leak in Kern County last year. This plunge pushed down by 14% the number of all permits granted in 2020 over 2019. (See Table 1 below.)
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Permits by Well Types
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Permit Count Totals
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Oil and Gas Production
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EOR & Support
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O&G and EOR Totals
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Well Stimulation
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Plugging
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Year
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New Drilling
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Rework
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New Drilling
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Rework
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New Drilling
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Rework
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Total
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Total
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Abandon
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2019
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789
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1,019
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1,578
|
999
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2,366
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2,018
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4,384
|
213
|
2,670
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2020
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1,709
|
860
|
283
|
893
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1,992
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1,753
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3,745
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128
|
3,423
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Percent Change:
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Up 116.6%
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Down 15.60%
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Down 82.07%
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Down 10.61%
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Down 15.81%
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Down 13.13%
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Down 14.58%
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Down 39.91%
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Up 28.20%
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*Permits for Sidetracks and to Deepen wells are included in the Rework counts
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“The Newsom Administration issued 128 fracking permits in 2020, down 40% over 2019,” the groups revealed. “Fracking permits fell due to a nine-month moratorium imposed by Newsom in 2019 on their issuance. The administration resumed issuing fracking permits in April.”
“During the first ten months of 2020, oil companies got 54 permits to frack. By December 31, oil companies had rushed in enough permit applications to wind up with 128 new permits,” the groups said.
Companies winning fracking permits included Aera Energy, a major client of Newsom’s friend and lobbyist Jason Kinney whose birthday dinner Newsom later regretted attending. The dinner became a major media scandal that has dogged Newsom ever since.
The number of wells plugged grew by 28% over 2019. But the number of permits to drill or rework wells is still outpacing permits to plug them. Oil regulators issued 3,745 new permits to drill in 2020 versus 3,423 to plug wells, the groups divulged.
“It is time for the people of California to see more permits issued to plug up and abandon wells than to drill them,” concluded Tucker. “Especially in light of the devastation that the extraction and burning of fossil fuels causes to both low-income communities and the climate all of us share.”
Newsom under fire for friendship with Aera lobbyist, taking $97,000 from fossil fuel industry
California Gavin Newsom has come under fire from environmentalists and the public over the fracking and other oil drilling permits that CalGEM issued in 2020 for Aera Energy and other oil companies.
In November, the Governor came under even greater scrutiny when the San Francisco Chronicle revealed that Newsom had attended a birthday party at an exclusive Napa restaurant, “Fresh Laundry,” for his friend and connected advisor, lobbyist Jayson Kinney, where the participants didn’t practice the Governor’s own social distancing and other rules developed to deal with the COVID pandemic.
Steve Horn of Capital & Main had previously reported that Kinney’s lobbying firm, Axion Advisors, represented Aera Energy, the recipient of many of the oil drilling permits granted to oil companies in 2020.
“That company, Aera Energy — a joint venture of Shell and ExxonMobil — is represented by the lobbying firm Axiom Advisors. Axiom’s lobbyists include Jason Kinney, a senior advisor to Newsom while he served as lieutenant governor, and Kevin Schmidt, a policy director for Newsom during the same time period,” reported Horn. “Kinney’s wife, Mary Gonsalves Kinney, Capital & Main previously reported, is also the personal stylist for First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom.”
Lobbying reports reveal that Aera paid Axiom $110,000 for its lobbying work in 2019 and, so far in 2020, has paid $30,000, noted Horn.
In addition to his longtime relationship with a lobbyist for Aera, Newsom also took $97,000 in campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry in 2019-20, according to the Sierra Club’s “Tracking the Dirty Dollars” project. Check it out: Report Overview
Background: Big Oil Regulatory Capture in California
The reason why the Newsom administration is approving increasing numbers of oil and gas permits at a time of an unprecedented pandemic 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.
In the third quarter of 2020, WSPA spent $1,169,397 while Chevron pumped $752,437 into lobbying.
Aera Energy — the company that the majority of fracking permits approved in 2020 went to — spent a total of $672,604 lobbying California officials in 2019. In 2020 to date, Aera spent $290,826 on lobbying from January 1 to March 31, $191,660 from April 1 to June 30, and $200,082 from July 1 to September 30, a total of $682,028, more than all of last year.
The final reports on lobbying expenses for 2020 won’t come become available until January 31, 2021.
Lobbying is just one of the seven methods that Big Oil uses in California to exercise inordinate influence over California regulators. WSPA and Big Oil wield their power in 7 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 (7) 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.
For more information, read: www.counterpunch.org/…