LOS ANGELES, April 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Governor Newsom's
ban on fracking in 2024 is a step in the right direction, and with
the number of permit approvals falling dramatically so far this
year, he has a perfect opening to take even stronger steps,
Consumer Watchdog said today.
"We applaud Newsom's executive action to ban fracking, but he
shouldn't kick the can down the road another three years," said
Consumer Advocate Liza Tucker. "The ban should be immediate. And
Newsom should move on establishing a 2,500-foot setback between
frontline communities and oil drilling operations. An anticipated
rule from CalGEM on that is long overdue."
Overall, first quarter 2021 oil permit approvals for new drills
of both oil & gas production wells and wells using harsh
extraction techniques to coax oil out of the ground plunged 90% to
only 100 permit approvals, according to the latest CalGEM data
crunched by FracTracker Alliance for
www.Newsomwellwatch.com. The pandemic suppressed demand for
oil and oil company permit applications. See Table 1 below.
"Rather than relying on the markets to dictate a managed
decline, Governor Newsom's administration needs to be the leader in
creating those policies," said Kyle
Ferrar, Western Program Coordinator for FracTracker
Alliance. "Most importantly, this starts with establishing
responsible public health rules that include a setback, to protect
Californians living in Frontline Communities."
"This is the ideal moment for Governor Newsom to seize and to
lead California away from fossil
fuels in an intentional transition that protects frontline
communities as well as jobs for oil and gas workers in cleaning up
a toxic mess the industry has left behind," said Tucker. "Though
the price of oil is coming back up, Wall Street is looking at a lot
of oil company debt coming due and wondering if oil is still such a
smart investment as renewable energy and technologies
proliferate."
As it is, California taxpayers
are on the hook for about $9 billion
tab to plug up California's wells,
a substantial number of which are currently idle or eking out less
than 15 barrels of oil a day, and to avoid the worst effects of
climate change, said Tucker.
Under Newsom, California's oil
regulator has issued a total of 291 fracking permits since
January 1, 2019, according to CalGEM
data crunched by the FracTracker Alliance. The number fell steadily
over the last few years after Newsom placed a temporary moratorium
on fracking in 2019 after learning the number was skyrocketing on
his watch. During Newsom's first year in office, 199 fracking
permits were issued. The following year, in 2020, 80 permits were
issued—60 to Aera Energy and 20 to Chevron. In the first quarter of
2021, CalGEM issued 11 fracking permits to Aera Energy and one to
Chevron.
Newsom had promised to ban fracking when he ran for office, but
ultimately punted to the legislature to do that job. Lawmakers
introduced legislation but Newsom never actively supported it and
it died in its first committee last week. That bill would have also
banned other dangerous forms of oil extraction and established a
setback of 2,500 feet between new drilling and residents of
communities living with oil drilling operations.
The Newsom Administration has issued 8,610 new permits overall
since January 1, 2019. In the first
quarter of 2021, the overall number of permits issued to drill and
rework all well types slowed to a trickle of 615, down 61% from the
same quarter last year.
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SOURCE Consumer Watchdog