California public lands belong the people and should never be leased to polluting industries for profit
By Ramona Cornell du Houx
SACRAMENTO – The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is advancing plans to expand oil and gas drilling on over 1 million acres of public land across southern California while downplaying the environmental impact of the development. The BLM action is part of a broader effort to open more than one million acres of public lands and federal mineral estate to future oil and gas development.
The public comment period on the proposed sale of 50 oil and gas parcels totaling nearly 36,000 acres across Kern, Kings, Fresno, and San Luis Obispo Counties, as well as a separate proposal that would make it easier to expand oil and gas development by limiting public participation and weakening environmental safeguards is August 24.
The expansive new proposed lease drilling sites will endanger public health and exasperate the climate crisis.
“People breathe the pollution from oil and gas operations daily, especially in environmental justice and low-income areas. I used to work with other migrants harvesting before I got my degrees. I’m working now to help with water issues that I witnessed. Back then in the fields of heat I saw that crops grow alongside oil and gas operations. I remember smelling the fumes. Now the climate crisis is worsening making those fields hotter and drying up water supplies because of our use of fossil fuels,” said Firebaugh City Councilmember Felipe Perez in Fresno County, and California Elected Officials to Protect America Leadership Council Member. “Now, to have the BLM propose opening up public land in our area where we can all visit to breathe clean air is adding insult to injury. I have been fortunate to leave the agricultural fields, but I’ll never forget the hard workers there who, like I did, look towards the hope of the American dream. Part of which is to recreate on public lands. People’s lives should always come before corporate profits.”
Research shows that about 1 out of 5 Americans die prematurely due breathing pollution.
“As a region, we should carefully consider whether additional oil and gas drilling is in Kern County’s best interest. We recognize that the industry provides jobs and supports families in our community, but we also have to acknowledge the environmental and public health concerns associated with extraction and transportation. As elected officials, we have a responsibility to protect our residents while supporting a strong and sustainable local economy. We all have a right to clean air, clean water and healthy communities,” said Delano City Councilmember Bryan Osorio and California Elected Officials to Protect America Leadership Council Member. “The proposed sale of public lands for additional oil and gas development needs to consider equity and the potentially disproportionate impact on working families. I encourage residents to learn more about the proposal and make their voices heard before the public comment period ends on August 24.”
According to the Guardian Newspaper, Chevron reported net income of $12.2bn for the second quarter, a more than fivefold increase on the same period last year. ExxonMobil reported a profit of $14.5bn, double what it made in the same period a year ago.
The Bakersfield field office seeks to lease out 416,515 acres of surface land and 1.2 million acres of underground mineral estate in Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura, California. Similar proposals from the Central Coast field office would lease out 284 acres of surface land and 9,000 acres of underground mineral estate.
The proposals seek to open oil and gas leasing in the Golden State’s Pinnacles National Park, Mount Diablo State Park, Henry W. Coe State Park and Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve.
“Public lands belong to the people of California and are a big part of our heritage. They are a refuge to recreate in, and be within nature. Our public lands make the USA unique as they represent democracy in action—for we all are equals while visiting these sacred natural areas,” said Former San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon, and California Elected Officials to Protect America Leadership Council Member. “In 2024 we banned fracking in our Golden State and in 2022 passed a 3,200-foot buffer zone between oil and gas sites and sensitive sites such as homes and schools. The BLM proposal ignores these critical state laws, and the will of our people. This federal administration is clearly putting oil and gas company profits before lives. We must fight back. I implore Governor Newsom to step in and stop what’s happening.”
Under the BLM proposal, Lost Hills, Buena Vista, Bakersfield and Sespe are targeted for new hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The current federal leasing proposal also ignores the historic health-and-safety buffer setback limit requiring drilling to be at least 3,200 feet from homes and schools in 2022.
California also passed laws to speed oil well cleanup, and affirm the ability of local governments to ban or limit oil and gas operations. State and local officials and the communities they serve have made it clear they don’t want more drilling.
“Elected Officials to Protect America gathered more than 500 signatures from elected officials from 52 counties across the state to protect the people of California against the dangers posed by oil and gas operations. Real progress has been made at the local, county and state levels. Now, new proposed operations on BLM land would perpetuate environmental injustices and violate California’s commitment to equitable environmental protection under state law and policy,” said Angel Alfaro Carranza, Elected Officials to Protect America Energy Security Solutions Program Officer. “Communities adjacent to existing drilling operations — particularly low-income communities and communities of color in the San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast regions-— experience elevated exposure to toxic air emissions, increased truck traffic, and contaminated water sources. Oil and gas development on BLM lands would disproportionately impact these frontline communities making cancer risks rise even more. People have lost their lives prematurely because they were raised within or near a zip code that has oil or gas operations. The people in California are working to improve their quality of life, so should the federal government and its agencies.”
The BLM manages about 245 million acres of public land, and administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation.
