Gabby Brown, Sierra Club, (914) 261-4626, gabby.brown@sierraclub.org
BAKERSFIELD, Calif.— The Trump administration today announced a proposal to open more than 1 million acres of public lands and minerals in central California to oil drilling and fracking. The plan, first floated in draft form in April, would end a more than five-year moratorium on leasing federal public land in the state to oil companies.
Today’s final environmental impact statement from the Bureau of Land Management will allow fossil-fuel extraction on public lands across eight counties in California’s Central Valley and Central Coast: Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura.
The move follows the Trump administration’s recent decision to allow fracking on 725,500 acres across 11 counties in California’s Central Coast and Bay Area. Conservation groups filed suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco to challenge that decision.
“Trump’s plan to hand over a million acres in California to the oil industry is a despicable attack on our state’s future,” said Clare Lakewood, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Sacrificing these public lands to dirty drilling and fracking will worsen the climate crisis and expose California’s people and wildlife to toxic pollution. We’ll do everything possible to stop this.”
The BLM has not issued a single new oil and gas lease in California since 2013, when a federal judge ruled that the agency had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by issuing oil leases in Monterey County without considering fracking’s environmental dangers.
Most of the land the BLM plans to open to the industry is in the San Joaquin Valley, which already has some of the most severe air pollution in the country.
“The Central Valley already suffers from some of the worst air and water quality, and now Trump is giving away our public spaces to the oil and gas industry,” said Gustavo Aguirre Jr., Kern projects coordinator with Central California Environmental Justice Network. “Trump’s attack on our public lands is catastrophic for Central Valley air quality and community health. We need to protect our frontline communities from further toxic pollution.”
"As an asthmatic, I know firsthand what it is like to suffer from an asthma attack and have to live most of your young life on inhalers,” said Samuel Molina, California state director of Mi Familia Vota. “Fracking will release more dangerous air pollution and will continue to put the lives of our community members at risk. I do not want any more children to have to grow up using an inhaler like I did, all because oil companies just want to make a buck."
“In addition to regional air impacts from fine particles and ozone-forming gases released from fracking operations, toxic petrochemicals can create local impacts,” said Genevieve Gale, executive director of the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition. “Diesel particulates, benzene, xylene, and other volatile hydrocarbons are known to cause cancer and harm the nervous, respiratory, and immune systems.”
The area slated for drilling and fracking is near spectacular public lands, including state parks, national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and Carrizo Plain National Monument. It’s also home to threatened and endangered animals, including San Joaquin kit foxes and California condors.
“This plan will degrade critical wildlife habitat, air quality, and parks and water resources that our communities depend on,” said Rebecca August, director of advocacy at Los Padres ForestWatch. “The entire process has been in the service of the Trump administration’s irresponsible pro-oil agenda. It’s sad to see such disregard for public health and the future of our public lands.”
“Expanding extraction of dirty fossil fuels on our public lands threatens the health of our communities and the future of our climate,” said Gary Lasky, legal chair of the Sierra Club Tehipite Chapter in Fresno. “Drilling on our public lands already accounts for a significant portion of climate pollution in the United States, and this push from the Trump administration to open up even more lands for drilling is a huge step in the wrong direction.”
Fracking is an extreme oil-extraction process that blasts a mixture of toxic chemicals and water into the ground to crack open oil-bearing rocks. According to the BLM, about 90 percent of new oil and gas wells on public lands are fracked.
A 2015 report from the California Council on Science and Technology concluded that fracking in California happens at unusually shallow depths, dangerously close to underground drinking-water supplies, with unusually high concentrations of toxic chemicals.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.