Industry submits signatures to overturn oil drilling ban

Dec. 13—A California oil trade group announced Tuesday it has gathered more than enough signatures to put a referendum on the November 2024 ballot asking voters whether to uphold a new state law that bans drilling within 3,200 feet of homes and other sensitive sites.

Even if county registrars across the state were to confirm only about 64 percent of the signatures gathered are valid, it would still be just enough to at least delay implementation of Senate Bill 1137 for almost two years — a win for the industry that its opponents say relied on deceit.

The referendum represents the latest phase of a conflict more than three years old that has pitted concerns for the health of people living and working near oil operations against industry protests that SB 1137 would make California still more reliant on imports from foreign producers not bound by the state's strict oil field regulations.

Besides prohibiting new drilling within 3,200 feet of a home, school or church, the law would forbid well deepening and reworks, and it would impose pollution controls on existing wells within the zone. It would also restrict noise, light and dust while mandating new testing and paperwork.

Scientific research has established a correlation between proximity to oil and gas wells and health problems such as adverse birth outcomes, heart disease and respiratory diseases including asthma.

SB 1137 was introduced after a state rule-making process on oil field buffers stalled. Gov. Gavin Newsom joined lawmakers in the final days of the last legislative session to build enough support to pass the bill. Parts of the new law are set to take effect Jan. 1.

The California Independent Petroleum Association issued a news release saying more than 978,000 Californians signed its "Stop the Energy Shutdown" petition.

"There is absolutely no reason California should be held hostage and export our wealth to OPEC+ countries," CIPA CEO Rock Zierman said in the release. "But by strangling our domestic supply, Gov. Newsom is promoting greater greenhouse gas emissions generated in other parts of the world and making gasoline more expensive."

In response to the announcement, environmental and environmental-justice organizations put out their own news release saying the state's rule-making process, which the Newsom administration has refused to comment on, continues and is unaffected by the referendum's delay.

Their release says oil companies, including several operating in Kern, invested a total of more than $20 million as of Dec. 2 to support the referendum.

"California's referendum process is clearly broken when big polluters can spend $20 million to collect signatures to overturn necessary public health protections that the people most affected by oil drilling pollution have been demanding for over a decade," community organizer Cesar Aguirre with the Central California Environmental Justice Network said in the release.

Added Director Brandon Dawson of Sierra Club California: "This news is a demoralizing setback, but the fight is not over. The referendum does not change the victory of SB 1137's passing. Instead, it serves as an impetus to sustain the momentum at the polls in 2024."

Supporters of SB 1137 allege signature-gatherers hired by the industry to promote the referendum misled people about what the referendum would do.

Three videos shared by environmental activists Tuesday appeared to show signature-gatherers telling people the referendum — one of them clearly the pro-drilling referendum — that the initiative was actually an anti-drilling initiative. When challenged, petition workers were recorded insisting the referendum would limit oil drilling. It would not.

Staff attorney Dan Ress with the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment said by email the industry used deceit to "subvert our democracy" and charged oil companies "refuse to let go of this harmful, racist strategy of sacrificing low-income communities of color for private gain."

Zierman said by email that signature-gatherers received explicit talking points about how SB 1137 increases foreign imports that are exempt from California environmental and labor laws.

"It has been proponents of SB 1137 who have spread misinformation," he wrote. "Oil tankers from foreign countries are the No. 1 source of air pollution, not domestic production."