Clean Break Sierra Club
On the last day of the 2022 legislative session, California Senators voted 25-10 in a decisive victory to advance Senate Bill 1137 to the Governor’s desk. The bill will prevent new permits for oil and gas drilling within a 3,200-foot comprehensive health and safety zone. The bill also will create a pathway to an end of existing drilling in the setback zone by prohibiting operators from seeking rework permits. Rework permits are granted to operators to repair or maintain the functionality of wells- SB1137 blocks any rework permits within 3,200ft, and will order the plugging of wells within that distance. This is a monumental win led by frontline communities and environmental justice groups that have been fighting to end neighborhood drilling in California for over a decade. It was catalyzed by an end-of-session intervention by the Governor and brought home by the tenacity of frontline communities, the VISIÓN Coalition, and the Sierra Club.
Nearly five and a half million Californians live within one mile of an oil or gas well, and of those, one-third live in areas with the highest levels of pollution in the state. Studies link proximity to oil and gas wells to a host of health impacts, including cancer, premature mortality, asthma and other respiratory ailments. These impacts are not distributed equally, with communities of color and low-income communities being most affected. California communities are already experiencing devastating impacts of climate change while oil and gas extraction magnifies this harm by producing air pollution, water contamination, noise pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions.
This historic victory comes ten years after environmental justice movement leaders launched this campaign with the support of a broad coalition of public health, labor, youth and environmental organizations fighting together for a statewide setback policy. Throughout this entire campaign, frontline communities have been tirelessly pushing previous California Governor Jerry Brown and current Governor Newsom to use regulatory measures to establish buffer zones between sensitive areas and dirty oil wells. Up until this recent win, oil wells in California could be right next to sensitive areas like homes, schools, parks, hospitals, prisons, and places of worship.
In response to this resolute effort, in October 2021, the state oil and gas regulator CalGEM issued a new draft health and safety rule requiring that newly constructed oil and gas extraction sites must be at least 3,200 feet from sensitive areas. CalGEM’s rule created a solid stepping stone to protect vulnerable Californians from harmful fossil fuel production, but it was continually stalled. This rule did not move forward despite the environmental justice movement, including many Sierra Club supporters, submitting over 60,000 public comments in support in December 2021 and continually checking in with the agency on its progress throughout 2022.
This win also comes after two failed legislative attempts by the environmental justice movement to pass setbacks, with bills AB345 in 2019-2020 and SB467 in 2021. The movement worked with elected allies to introduce these bills but both were blocked from passing the legislature by moderate democrats including Senator Herzberg from Los Angeles and Senator Hueso from San Diego. Even still, frontline communities and advocates persisted and increased pressure on the Governor’s administration to deliver on setbacks. The movement's efforts doubled in 2022 when dozens of oil wells were found leaking in Bakersfield near homes and schools and Fractracker Alliance found wells leaking throughout Los Angeles, Kern County, and Ventura. With the Governor’s support in introducing SB1137 and the movement’s coordinated pressure on moderate democrats, the end of neighborhood drilling is finally in sight. This legislative win is an emblem of the hard work and perseverance of our communities never giving up, considering this was our third time trying to get a setback bill passed.
We would not be where we are today without the solidarity within the environmental movement; lead by partners at VISIÓN, California Environmental Justice Alliance Action, The Central California Environmental Justice Network, The Center on Race, Poverty, & the Environment, Communities for a Better Environment, Physicians for Social Responsibility- LA and SF, and more. The movement collaborated to coordinate on targets, utilize the full suite of our organizing tools, engage our members, run ads, and support one another across capacities. We lobbied legislators, attended events, called representatives and took any actions necessary to secure a win on setbacks. In the eleventh hour, we needed two votes to make setbacks a reality and members of our Beyond Dirty Fuels team in California along with Sierra Club chapters and partners used their networks to help send out last minute action alerts to flood the Senate targets with calls. All of this work has led us to the passage of SB1137 that will help protect Californian communities from oil and gas well pollution.
It has been an arduous road full of obstacles, but today we can stand in the sunshine knowing the fossil fuel industry’s days of poisoning our communities are finally coming to an end in California. There will be no more drilling where we’re living.