Los Angeles, CA— Despite the constantly repeated mantra by California politicians and media talking heads that the state is the nation’s “green leader,” the actual reality on the ground is much different as California regulators continue to approve thousands of oil well drilling permits every year.
The total number of oil drilling permits approved since Governor Gavin Newsom took office in Jan. 2019 soared to 14,623 in the first quarter of 2023, the FracTracker Alliance and Consumer Watchdog revealed in an analysis released today.
The two groups track and map new well approvals at the site www.NewsomWellWatch.com.
Representatives of the two organizations and many others belonging to the Last Chance Alliance condemned the approval of 897 oil well permits—particularly the 62% of approvals in the first quarter for oil operations within 3,200 feet of marginalized communities.
“Is Governor Newsom a climate leader?” questioned Kobi Naseck, Coalition Coordinator, Voices in Solidarity Against Oil in Neighborhood. “Since January 1st, the administration has approved 897 permits to drill, the majority of them in the proposed health and safety buffer zone. In other words, in our neighborhoods. Climate leaders don’t do that.”
“Seeing Newsom pushing for accountability from Big Oil is a great step in the right direction, but it doesn’t mean much if his administration continues to entrench California in fossil fuel pollution,” added Ilonka Zlatar, Climate Justice Organizer, Oil & Gas Action Network. We need real climate leadership. Newsom must tell his agency to deny drilling permits in the health and safety buffer to protect Californians from health impacts and from the climate crisis.”
Marjaneh Moini, MD, Board Member, Physicians for Social Responsibility, agrees strongly with the assessments of Zlatar and Naseck — and points to the racism that lies under the veneer of California’s carefully cultivated “green” and “progressive” reputation.
“The Governor’s appointed regulators know how harmful oil and gas drilling near homes, schools, and day care facilities, but they continue to rubber stamp their permits,” Moini argued. “Not only have historical discriminatory housing policies trapped communities of color and low income communities in over polluted neighborhoods, a new study shows that in California, black residents are exposed to the most intense oil and gas operations.”
“By approving permits near homes, schools and daycare facilities in overburdened communities; the Governor’s regulators are perpetuating environmental racism, continuing policies that exacerbate the health disparity gap and environmental injustice in our state. This has to stop,” Moini concluded.
7.4 million Californians—nearly one in five—currently live within a mile of an active well, according to Consumer Watchdog and Fracktracker Alliance. Risk of harm from chronic exposure to toxic emissions from wells has been documented among residents who live up to 6.2 miles from a well.
“The California Geologic Energy Management Division still has not gotten the memo that allowing any increased oil extraction within one kilometer of communities is not acceptable,” argued Consumer Advocate Liza Tucker. “The oil industry had the audacity to challenge a state law establishing that health protective setback by qualifying a referendum to overturn it. Shame on CalGEM for not following through to protect communities despite that nefarious effort.”
“FracTracker’s analyses have shown that prioritizing the health of marginalized communities by keeping oil and gas operations outside of health protection zones will have a minimal effect on statewide oil production,” said FracTracker Coordinator Kyle Ferrar. “Yet, CalGEM continues to bend to the whim of the oil and gas industry, We applaud the administration for taking a stand against new drilling by awarding only one new drilling permit this quarter, but the large number of permits for work on existing wells also harm the health of frontline communities.”
62 percent of 897 oil drilling permits approved in first quarter are in setback zones
During the first quarter of 2023, Ferrar said CalGEM approved a total of 897 permits throughout the state, a 40% uptick over the first quarter of 2022. All but one for new drilling were for work on existing wells, including fixing, deepening, and redrilling them. Permits for work on existing wells rose 76% over the same period last year. See Table 1.
Table 1.
“In the first quarter, 62% of all the permits approved in the setback zone—totaling 556—were primarily to repair or redirect drilling in existing wells to more productive geologic formations,” he added.
“An independent scientific advisory panel had advised CalGEM that a 3,200-foot setback—or one kilometer--between homes, schools, daycares, hospitals, and other sensitive receptors was the minimum distance to protect public health,” revealed Ferrar.
Nevertheless, he said Californian women living within 6.2 miles of at least one oil or gas well during pregnancy have an increased risk of low-birthweight babies. Proximity to active oil operations increases the risk of premature birth by 40% and the chances of a high-risk pregnancy by 30%.
As I have documented in numerous articles, California is the only major oil-producer other than Alaska that currently lacks health and safety setbacks when other extraction states including North Dakota, Colorado and even Texas have instituted minimum setbacks.
Set to go into effect in January 2023, the California Independent Petroleum Association (CIPA) sponsored the referendum that has delayed the implementation of the setbacks law for two years. Filings with the California Secretary of State reveal that oil companies funneled over $20 million to the committee Stop the Energy Shutdown, a “Coalition Of Small Business Owners, Concerned Taxpayers, Local Energy Producers And The California Independent Petroleum Association.
California advocacy groups are now demanding that the state regulate how petitlion signature collection is conducted, since the signatures were obtained on false and misleading pretenses.
“Big Oil’s well-funded signature-gathering campaign has been tainted amid reports of petition circulators telling ‘blatant lies’ to secure signatures,” according to Legal Planet, a collaboration between Berkeley and UCLA law schools. “These alleged lies range from the spurious claim that the petition exists ‘to lower gas prices,’ to the outright false assertion that the referendum would prohibit neighborhood oil and gas operations (probably a successful strategy, considering Californians’ overwhelming support for buffer zones between residences and oil extraction sites).”
Reworked permits take a shorter amount of time to obtain
Environmental justice advocates explained that the oil industry applies for more permits to fix (rework wells) than it does for new ones because it takes a shorter amount of time to obtain these permits.
“The trends of permitting rates, provided in Figure 1 below by FracTracker, shows an enormous jump in oil permit applications in September 2022, right after SB 1137 passed, and another big jump in December, right before the law went into effect,” explained Ferrar. “In January, when SB 1137 had the force of law, permits applications fell sharply. At the start of February when the referendum to overturn the law qualified, permit applications zoomed up again.”
“In January, the oil industry understood that the law was in effect,” said Ferrar. “After the referendum qualified, they understood that they could freely apply for permits once again. The oil industry figured they had it in the bag and business as usual could proceed because the referendum’s qualifying for the ballot technically paused the setback law.”
Figure 1. Permit Application Counts
However, CalGEM’s treatment of applications to perform hydraulic fracturing (fracking) differs sharply from their treatment of applications for oil drilling and other operations within the setback zone, according to the groups.
Governor Newsom banned fracking as of January 1, 2024 with an executive order issued in April 2021, but CalGEM has not approved any more fracking permits since December 1, 2021.
“It is a mystery why the Administration took a stance against permitting new fracking and CalGEM has backed that up, but CalGEM continues to approve oil permits near marginalized communities when both the Governor and the legislature backed the creation of a setback on the grounds of protecting public health and the environment,” said Tucker. “Certainly, the Governor and CalGEM have the authority to enforce the setback on the same grounds.”
“In public, Governor Newsom presents himself as an environmental champion, supporting legislation to create setbacks and penalties for the oil and gas industry when their profits are too high,” confirmed Kayla Karimi, Staff Attorney, Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment. “Meanwhile, he quietly allows CalGEM, an agency under his authority, to approve permits to drill, most of them within the setback zone. 897 permits and counting is not an oversight; it is a policy decision.”
You can see more reactions from the Last Chance Alliance here: https://lastchancealliance.org/in-response-to-governor-newsom-drilling-permits-last-chance-alliance-groups-released-the-following-statements/
Background: Big Oil spent $34.2 on lobbying in the 2021-22 session
In addition to the $20 million the oil industry paid to challenge SB 1137, the oil and gas industry spent over $34.2 million on lobbying the Legislature and other state officials in the 2021-22 Legislative Session.
While a long and hard-fought campaign by environmental justice groups, with the help of Governor Gavin Newsom, was able to finally get SB 1137 approved by the Legislature, other important bills were stopped by oil industry-backed legislators. Those measures include a bill to ban offshore drilling off the California coast and another bill to divest State of California pension funds from investments in the fossil fuel industry.
In addition to stopping key climate justice bills, the gusher of Big Oil and Big Gas lobbying money also resulted in CalGEM’s approval of 3,382 permits in 2022, including 551 new well permits and 2,831 oil well rework permits.
The Western States Petroleum Association, the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying group in Sacramento, spent $11,720,912 in the 2021-22 session: cal-access.sos.ca.gov/…
Chevron Corporation, the San-Ramon based oil giant that is infamous for environmental devastation and degradation from the Ecuadorian Amazon to Richmond, California, spent a total of $8,631,118 lobbying California officials in the 2021-22 session.
WSPA and Big Oil wield their power in 8 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) sponsoring awards ceremonies, including those for legislators and journalists; (7) contributing to non profit organizations; and (8) creating alliances with labor unions.