Postpone California’s oil drilling protections until 2031? Absolutely not

Communities across California, from Los Angeles to the San Joaquin Valley, have been fighting for more than a decade to stop oil companies from drilling in their neighborhoods and releasing harmful pollutants into the air.

The passage of a landmark state law in 2022 that bans new drilling within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, daycares and hospitals and creates new health protections for existing wells seemed like the victory they had hoped for. They never imagined it might take nearly another decade for the law to take full effect.

Yet that’s exactly what Governor Gavin Newsom’s office proposed in the final days of this year’s legislative session. The law was already delayed for a year and a half when the oil industry filed a referendum against the law and then withdrew it from the November ballot. Now the administration wants to extend various deadlines for the oil industry to comply with the law.

As currently drafted, the law gives operators of wells near homes and schools until the end of this year to submit leak detection and cleanup plans to state regulators and until the end of 2026 to implement them. Newsom’s proposal would extend those deadlines to July 1, 2029 and July 1, 2031, respectively, among other things.

Forcing communities that already face one obstacle after another to wait years for oil companies to fully comply with requirements to protect their communities from pollution by their oil companies is unreasonable and wrong.

No more delays. Lawmakers should reject the Newsom administration’s last-minute proposal. The more than 2 million Californians who live within 3,500 feet of oil wells and face an increased risk of cancer and other health problems deserve help now.

For years, the oil industry used its lobbying power in Sacramento to fend off lawmakers’ efforts to ban new oil wells and protect Californians from the health impacts of existing drilling projects.

In 2021, Governor Newsom announced that his administration would impose drilling restrictions without the Legislature, but legislation moved so slowly that it took a new law to finally make it happen.

The law’s ban on new drilling near homes and schools went back into effect immediately after the referendum was withdrawn in June. But under Newsom’s proposal, oil companies would be given more than four additional years to meet legal requirements to monitor and repair leaks at existing wells.

“Leaks” is an understatement: The drilling work is releasing carcinogenic benzene and other dangerous pollutants into the lungs of children and adults who live, work or go to school nearby. And this must stop.

A delay of 18 months would at least be understandable. That is how long the law was suspended due to the referendum supported by the oil industry and should be enough time for the state authorities tasked with implementing the law to get back on track. But they don’t need more than four years.

“It seems to be an advantage to industry and a disadvantage to the public,” Rep. Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Los Angeles) said at a committee hearing last week. “It delays things for many years without any kind of political oversight.”

Although oil companies will be the main beneficiaries of these delays, officials in the Newsom administration stressed the need to give state agencies more time to hire staff and prepare to properly implement the law. The governor’s office said it had not reached an agreement with the oil industry in exchange for the referendum being scrapped.

We hope the delay attempt is not a sign that the governor will back down from his tough and urgent climate action. His office said he will not back down from his commitment to moving the state away from fossil fuels, but that is not the only example.

The governor on Monday issued his confusing veto of a bill to improve monitoring, reporting and public notification of air pollution from oil refineries, saying the local air quality control districts that supported the bill were already doing enough to protect communities.

The administration has also requested a two-year delay in implementing two key environmental laws that Newsom signed last year that require major companies operating in California to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related risks.

Members of the House and Senate should reject anything that does not delay such important climate and health protection measures. Postponing deadlines is not without its risks.

Living near oil and gas wells is linked to asthma, premature births and lung function decline, as is living near a highway or being exposed to secondhand smoke. Populations suffer the ongoing health consequences of any delay granted to the fossil fuel industry.

2024 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.