Editorial: Gov. Newsom has the power to stop oil companies’ dishonest ploy to keep drilling
The oil industry is making headway in its misleading campaign to overturn a new state law and continue the dangerous and unhealthy practice of drilling in neighborhoods.
Senate Bill 1137, which bans new oil and gas wells, or reworks of existing wells, within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, parks and healthcare facilities to protect people from air pollution and safety risks, is supposed to take effect in January. An oil industry-led referendum effort to repeal the law has moved closer to qualifying, threatening to delay its implementation by nearly two years.
While state officials await verification of signatures, the California Geologic Energy Management Division on Monday released a proposal to implement the law by the first week of January, but it could be in effect for only a short time. Typically when a referendum qualifies, the law it targets is put on hold until voters reaffirm it in a future election, which in this case would be November 2024. This is why the state’s referendum process has increasingly become a popular way for corporations to circumvent new laws they don’t like.
But Gov. Gavin Newsom has the power to shut down new drilling independent of the new law — and he should use it. Under his guidance, the state started drafting regulations to establish buffer zones around homes, schools and other sensitive areas last year but did not complete them and instead pushed the Legislature to take on the issue. Newsom should resume that process and in the meantime stop approving new drilling permits in those areas.
The oil industry wants to put a referendum on the ballot to overturn California’s ban on neighborhood drilling. Californians shouldn’t fall for it.
Powerful interests shouldn’t be able to undermine the legislative process, using paid signature gatherers to win another two years of reaping the financial windfalls from the continued ability to extract oil in our backyards.
These buffer zones are urgently needed to protect the more than 2 million Californians who live within about half a mile of an oil or gas well and are at higher risk of asthma, preterm births and reductions in lung function and other health problems. They shouldn’t have to wait any longer for relief.
The California Independent Petroleum Assn., which is leading the effort to overturn SB 1137, announced last week that it had collected more than 978,000 signatures for a referendum (623,212 valid signatures are required). Stop the Energy Shutdown, the committee pushing the petition, has received more than $20 million in contributions, mostly from oil companies. There have been reports of signature gatherers misleading voters by telling them the petition was to lower gas prices or to prevent drilling near homes and schools, when the opposite is true. The secretary of state’s office confirmed it has received complaints.
Petitioners can pay firms about $17 per signature. And if they qualify, which is easy for a deep-pocketed industry, they will score an immediate victory by halting a law from taking effect, even if the referendum isn’t ultimately approved by voters. It’s not an exaggeration to say they are buying their way out of regulation. And that is a dangerous perversion of direct democracy.
Cigarette companies, fast-food chains and oil producers are spending millions to try to halt laws that are in the public interest.
A strong response by a governor battling the multibillion-dollar oil industry would also send a clear message to other business interests to think twice before trying to use their money and influence to undo laws that they don’t like and that threaten their bottom line.
It’s not good enough to just hope that Californians will do the right thing and see through a referendum that, if the signature-gathering process is any indication, will be clouded in fossil fuel industry disinformation designed to confuse voters.
It’s time the state’s oil and gas regulator, CalGEM, which has a history of rubber-stamping oil wells, prioritizes public health and environmental justice by saying no to the petroleum industry and its harmful and outdated practice of extracting oil practically anywhere it wants. The agency has already stopped approving fracking permits on climate change grounds. What is preventing it from doing the same to protect public health and safety, by refusing to approve new permits near homes and schools?
A proposal by Gov. Gavin Newsom to cap the profits of oil refiners to prevent price gouging is a good idea. Oil companies shouldn’t be able to fleece Californians.
A CalGEM spokeswoman would not answer questions about its authority to deny permits and could provide no information on how much new drilling it has approved within the 3,200-foot buffer zone in recent months, saying it does not yet collect that data from operators.
But a nonprofit that tracks the division’s permitting data says it has approved 106 new drilling permits and 1,037 permits to rehabilitate existing wells in 2022. That includes 78 new drilling permits and 692 permits to rehabilitate existing wells since SB 1137 was signed by Newsom on Sept. 16, according to Kyle Ferrar, western program coordinator at FracTracker Alliance, which maps, analyzes and communicates the risks of oil, gas and petrochemical development.
For the sake of our air quality, health and climate, California regulators should do everything in their power to make sure they are the last such permits ever issued.
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