CALIFORNIA
Fight reignites against Big Oil’s neighborhood drilling
Recent California elections have imparted a valuable lesson to industries unable get their way with the Legislature: Stop a new law from taking effect by forcing it onto the ballot, and then convincing voters to reject it.
Defenders of those laws have learned a lesson, too: The best defense is a good offense.
So public health groups, environmentalists and community organizations just announced they’ve created a coalition to combat oil industry efforts to block a new law that would ban new oil and gas wells near homes and schools.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law last year, but it’s been on hold since oil companies — pouring $20 million into the effort — qualified a measure for the November 2024 ballot to overturn it.
Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Long Beach Democrat and the bill’s author: “The law passed with overwhelming support… And now, we are standing with the (campaign) to hold Big Oil accountable for the decades they’ve spent poisoning our neighborhoods for profit.”
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife contributed seed money to the campaign, and Gov. Newsom’s political consultant firm, Bearstar Strategies, is assisting with strategy, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Companies attempt referendums in hopes that voters wipe laws off the books, as they did in 2020 by siding with the bail bond industry over a ballot measure to repeal the end of cash bail.
Even when referendums fail, they can still serve industry purposes. By spending $20 million to qualify a referendum, the tobacco industry bought itself a nearly two-year pause on a 2020 law banning flavored tobacco products. Voters ultimately upheld the ban, but not before the industry reaped what anti-smoking activists estimated was $830 million in revenues from menthol cigarettes alone. And a pending fast food industry referendum has stalled a law that would create a council to regulate fast food wages.
Newsom has very publicly taken on oil companies before, such as when he called for a special legislative session to look into what he labeled “price gouging.” The result: a watered-down law authorizing a state commission to investigate and potentially cap oil industry profits — though that did not stop the governor from declaring “we can actually beat Big Oil.”
But he has remained relatively mum on oil’s current efforts to overturn the drilling setback law (his office did not respond to a request to comment). He also has been unwilling to use his authority to otherwise restrict drilling — much to the chagrin of environmentalists. He could have, for example, issued an emergency rule or a moratorium on approving new drilling permits before the 2024 election.
Until then, however, oil companies are gearing up for a pricey campaign to convince voters to allow them to drill within 3,200 feet of their homes.
In a statement to CalMatters, California Independent Petroleum Association CEO Rock Zierman said that the contested law was originally “rushed through the legislature with no scientific justification.”
- Zierman: “Millions of Californians continue to be frustrated by inflated prices at the pump and don’t want to be beholden to foreign oil…. We will continue to educate Californians about our industry that works under the strictest environmental standards in the world (and) produces thousands of high-paying jobs.”
—Lynn La, CALMatters
WASHINGTON
Biden-Harris Administration investing $152 million to expand water storage in the West
The Department of the Interior today announced a $152 million investment from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that will bring clean, reliable drinking water to communities across the West through six water storage and conveyance projects. The projects in California, Colorado and Washington are expected to develop at least 1.7 million acre-feet of additional water storage capacity, enough water to support 6.8 million people for a year. The funding will also invest in a feasibility study that could advance water storage capacity once completed.
President Biden’s Investing in America agenda represents the largest investment in climate resilience in the nation’s history and aims to provide much-needed resources to enhance Western communities’ resilience to drought and climate change, including protecting the short- and long-term sustainability of the Colorado River System. Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Reclamation is investing a total of $8.3 billion over five years for water infrastructure projects, including water purification and reuse, water storage and conveyance, desalination and dam safety. The Inflation Reduction Act is investing an additional $4.6 billion to address the historic drought.
—Submitted
