Oil Industry Fights to Keep Drilling Near California Schools and Homes
Assembly Bill 345, which would establish a 2500-ft health and safety zone between oil drilling and sensitive sites like homes, schools, and playgrounds, made it through the Natural Resources Committee on Earth Day, and that’s a good thing.
The oil industry and its allies rolled out the big rhetorical guns for this vote. Ron Stein penned an alarmist op-ed labeling the bill a danger to national security, since any reduction in domestic oil production would --of course-- require more imported petroleum from countries populated by brown people who hate us.
The Western States Petroleum Association and the California Independent Petroleum Association claimed, Assemblyman Muratsuchi’s bill, if passed, would effectively end oil production in many parts of the state and threaten the future of production statewide.
The state Building Trades Council rolled out green tee shirts and hard hats to the committee hearing, hoping to make the case about jobs being threatened. The Termo company tweeted that there was no scientific basis for separating oil wells from people.
https://twitter.com/KellyKru_/status/1120481919802720257
Here’s the thing: AB 345 applies to new drilling and redrilling of capped wells, effective in 2020. The dirty energy industry says their reading is that it will apply to all wells.
(b) For purposes of this section, both of the following definitions apply:
(1) “Oil and gas development” means exploration for, and drilling, production, and processing of, oil, gas, or other gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons, and the flowlines and the treatment of waste associated with that exploration, drilling, production, and processing. “Oil and gas development” also includes hydraulic fracturing.
(2) “Rework operations” means operations performed in the well bore of an oil or gas well after the well is completed and equipped for production for the purpose of securing, restoring, or improving hydrocarbon production in a subsurface interval that is then open to production in the well bore. Those operations shall include, but are not limited to, fracturing, refracturing, and other formation stimulation operations and recompletion operations conducted in the subsurface interval, and shall not include routine repairs or well maintenance work.
(c) Except as provided in subdivisions (d) and (e), and notwithstanding any other law, commencing January 1, 2020, all new oil and gas development permitted under this division, that is not on federal land, shall be located at least 2,500 feet from a residence, school, childcare facility, playground, hospital, or health clinic. For purposes of this section, the redrilling of a previously plugged and abandoned oil or gas well or other rework operations shall be considered new oil and gas development.
There is also language allowing for companies to apply for reducing the health protection zone, provided they can demonstrate compliance with the intent of the legislation to protect public health and safety.
https://twitter.com/SierraClubCA/status/1120494860744691712
Not mentioned in the industry public relations campaign are the use of massive amounts of chemicals known to cause serious health problems, and despite the visible reduction of smog, California’s ongoing air pollution problems, particularly in areas where low income residents live.
One analysis of air district data revealed that oil companies have used more than 98 million pounds of problematic chemicals in L.A. County since 2013.
From a Pacific Standard article about how residents in one community have organized to fight back against the pollution caused by drilling:
Wilmington's pumpjacks emit noxious odors and pollutants like diesel particulates, methane, and carcinogenic benzene. Many of the pumps are surrounded by simple fences and sit only dozens of feet from buildings and spaces where children live, learn, and play. (Research shows that a building should be at least 2,500 feet from an active oil or gas well to minimize the effects of toxic emissions.) Children are even more susceptible, since they absorb higher levels of toxins and contaminants than adults do.
Not surprisingly, Wilmington has one of the highest cancer rates in Southern California and some of the state's highest rates of asthma. Its residents also complain of headaches, nosebleeds, and other symptoms and diseases likely caused or exacerbated by the pollution.
While whiter, wealthier areas of Los Angeles are also situated near active wells (though not quite as near as in Wilmington), those wells are often fully enclosed in structures made to look like office buildings, mitigating harmful effects. They also generally use electric rigs rather than diesel rigs, reducing pollution.
California’s earlier attempts to clean up the environmental dangers surrounding drilling haven’t helped in low-income communities. From High Country News:
A 2013 California state cap-and-trade law offered incentives for big polluters to become greener. But one study suggests that the program has inadvertently made air quality worse in places close to refineries and power plants, like Wilmington. Here’s how it works: Under the law, big polluters like oil refineries and power plants must buy permits that allow them to emit greenhouse gases. The number of permits available is reduced year by year, in an effort to gradually bring down the state’s overall carbon emissions. But rather than lower their emissions to meet the program’s targets, oil companies like Tesoro, which operates in Wilmington, choose to buy up other companies’ allowances, or pay to offset the damage they cause elsewhere, by planting trees in Alaska, for example. This gives them free license to continue polluting in their immediate areas.
On a state scale that ranks vulnerability to air pollution from 1 to 100, Wilmington is around 96. The scale takes into account factors like poverty (the majority of local families make between $20,000 and $40,000 a year) and education (only 5 percent of locals have a college degree). In Wilmington, 86 percent of residents are Latino, and almost half are foreign-born.
Here’s a glimpse at the bigger picture, from the Los Angeles Times:
In 2018, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health called for greater health and safety “setback” requirements on new oil and gas wells, keeping them at least 300 feet from populated areas. It also called for a significant increase in air quality monitoring within the 68 active oil fields in the Los Angeles Basin. Oils rigs, storage tanks and other operations are common sights in the working-class neighborhoods in Wilmington, Long Beach, Torrance and South Los Angeles, where oil production has plagued neighborhoods with foul odors, noise and occasional spills or refinery explosions.
Close to 900,000 Californians live within a half-mile of an active oil or gas well, with the vast majority in Los Angeles and Kern counties, according to a study by the Environmental Defense Fund. There also are 378 schools or certified daycare facilities in California that are that close to an active well, the report found.
The most publicized and politically charged case highlighting the dangers of oil and gas extraction in Southern California was in 2015, when a gas leak at the affluent San Fernando Valley community of Porter Ranch caused thousands of residents to evacuate and triggered complaints of nosebleeds, nausea and headaches. The Southern California Gas Co. agreed to pay $119.5 million to settle lawsuits brought by state and local agencies.
According to the California Department of Education, asthma is a leading cause of school absenteeism. Air pollution in the Golden State kills 25,000 people annually and costs $200 million worth of medical expenses.
Coming out to support AB 345 were:
The Center on Race, Poverty, & the Environment
Physicians for Social Responsibility-LA
SCOPE
Natural Resources Defense Council
CA League of Conservation Voters
The Center for Biological Diversity
Sierra Club
Clean Water Action
California Environmental Justice Alliance
Asian Pacific Environmental Network
Communities for a Better Environment
Breast Cancer Action
Californians Against Fracking
The hearing on the setback bill comes as Gov. Gavin Newsom is reported to be ready to roll out his policies dealing with oil production and fracking. Environmental activists are hoping Newsom will ban new oil and gas drilling in California and completely phase out fossil fuel extraction.
Although the California Democratic Party has said it is no longer accepting donations from the oil industry, that hasn’t stopped the flow of money into the coffers of candidate running for positions in Sacramento.
According to CALMatters:(Emphasis mine)
The petroleum industry has put $19.2 million into California politics in the 2017-18 election cycle, according to a CALmatters analysis of campaign finance data. Much of it is helping Republicans, including $2 million to the California Republican Party and a portion of the roughly $14 million the industry has put into independent committees supporting some politicians from both parties.
But the oil money helping California Democrats is significant. It includes:
More than $853,000 in direct contributions to 47 Democrats running for Assembly and Senate—including powerful leaders of both houses of the Legislature—and to the campaigns of Democratic Attorney General Xavier Becerra and to Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, state Sen. Ed Hernandez.
More than $2.8 million on an independent campaign to help Democrat Susan Rubio win a Los Angeles-area state Senate seat
More than $343,000 on an independent campaign supporting the re-election of Democratic Assemblyman Rudy Salas of Bakersfield
Nearly $160,000 to a committee that campaigns for business-friendly Democrats
In addition, oil companies and other business interests are pooling funds on campaigns supporting other Democrats running for the Legislature: Tasha Boerner-Horvath of Encinitas, Sabrina Cervantes of Riverside, James Ramos of San Bernardino, Bob Archuleta of Pico Rivera, Vanessa Delgado of Montebello, Freddie Rodriguez of Pomona and Sydney Kamlager of Los Angeles.
Watch this bill. It should be a litmus test for local Democrats who claim to be environmentally friendly.
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Lead Image Credit: Robert Garcia, The City Project