Oil and gas companies are being rewarded just weeks after popular neighborhood drilling law was paused.

California Fossil Fuel Infrastructure in Bakersfield
In an aerial view, a pumpjack at the Petrocapital Resources Jewett 1,2,3 oil wells is visible next to a neighborhood near Arvin High School where a major gas leak from the site had displaced people from their homes for more than eight months in 2014, in Arvin, California. Fossil fuel infrastructure in Arvin, California. Kern County, whose population is over half Latinx, is home to a bulk of California’s oil production and agriculture. Facing the simultaneous challenges of fossil fuel racism and being in the center of the climate crisis, Kern County farmworker communities face interconnected and deliberate capitalist crises on all fronts.

Oil and gas companies are being rewarded just weeks after popular neighborhood drilling law was paused.

SACRAMENTO, CA (March 14, 2023)–In response to the news that the California agency in charge of overseeing oil and gas industry, CalGEM has approved 338 rework permits near neighborhoods in California since March 1, Greenpeace USA Senior Climate Campaigner Amy Moas, Ph.D., said:

“Last month it was illegal for California to approve any kind of oil drilling permit in neighborhoods because of the toxic health impacts. But the oil industry dumped more than $20 million into a referendum to pause this law and buy their way onto the ballot in 2024. Just weeks later, the industry is being rewarded with hundreds of shiny new permits for oil and gas work dangerously close to neighborhoods. This is nonsensical. Governor Newsom appears to be standing up to Big Oil by signing SB1137 last year and attempting to pass a price gouging penalty, so why is he still quietly approving their requests for new permits that will lock frontline communities into a toxic future?”

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Contact: Katie Nelson, Greenpeace USA Senior Communications Specialist, [email protected], +1 (678) 644-1681