Kern County produces about 70 percent of California’s oil and more than 90 percent of its natural gas. However, 20 percent of county residents live at or below the federal poverty line. Please listen to the story HERE. By Suzanne Potter, Public News Service – CA – Producer March 23, 2021 KERN COUNTY, Calif. — Groups fighting for clean air and against […]
Kern County produces about 70 percent of California’s oil and more than 90 percent of its natural gas. However, 20 percent of county residents live at or below the federal poverty line.
KERN COUNTY, Calif. — Groups fighting for clean air and against climate change are calling for the State of California to step in after the Kern County Board of Supervisors approved a plan to fast-track more than 40,000 new oil and gas wells.
Supporters of the plan say it will create jobs and bring in much-needed tax revenue.
Bryan Osorio, mayor of the City of Delano, opposes the plan and urged lawmakers to pass Senate Bill 467, which would halt new permits for fracking starting next year, and ban it altogether as of 2027.
“Drilling releases a toxic soup of chemicals and particulates, which gets into our lungs and stays there,” Osorio asserted. “Adding more oil drilling pollution to existing high levels of pollution in Kern County will just make matters worse.”
Senate Bill 467 is being considered in two legislative committees in April.
But the agency is also supposed to unveil a plan next month to protect people living near oil and gas sites.
Kern County has some of the dirtiest air in the country. A UCLA survey from 2018 found almost one-third of kids under age 17 in the county are diagnosed with asthma.
Katie Valenzuela, a Sacramento City Council member who grew up battling asthma in Oildale, said the county has chosen oil profits over its residents’ health, particularly the lower-income Latino communities near the wells.
“I don’t believe the Kern County Board of Supervisors, given the action and discussion two weeks ago, is ever going to change course unless they get voted out, or unless the state comes in and intervenes,” Valenzuela contended.
Helpful science tips in playful videos that explain principles we all deal with to understand our climate crisis. The series is the creation of Olivia Baaten.