Gavin Newsom tells state agencies to ban fracking, phase out oil extraction
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday directed state agencies to ban fracking by 2024 and plan to phase out all oil extraction in California by 2045.
“The climate crisis is real, and we continue to see the signs every day,” the Democratic governor said in a statement. “As we move to swiftly decarbonize our transportation sector and create a healthier future for our children, I’ve made it clear I don’t see a role for fracking in that future and similarly, believe that California needs to move beyond oil.”
Newsom is requiring the state’s Department of Conservation’s Geologic Energy Management Division to start the regulatory process to stop issuing permits for new hydraulic fracturing projects, an oil extraction process known as “fracking.”
Newsom had previously said he doesn’t have the authority to ban fracking through executive action, and said that the Legislature should send him a bill to outlaw the practice. After a fracking ban bill died in committee earlier this month, California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said that directing the state’s oil regulating division to go through a years-long rulemaking process will be a “legally durable” way to end the practice.
Though Newsom had previously called on the Legislature to send him a bill that would ban the practice in the Golden State, advocates criticized him for not doing enough to whip up support for the fracking ban measure, Senate Bill 467.
The legislation also would have required oil wells to be at least 2,500 feet from buildings like schools, homes and hospitals, otherwise known as “setbacks.” That distance, environmental groups said, would help safeguard disadvantaged communities of color from negative public health outcomes.
SB 467 died amid bipartisan opposition after a coalition of energy groups and trade organizations contended it would kill good-paying jobs and force California to purchase oil from out-of-state sources with less rigorous safety standards.
“We have to transition off. And I do agree with the opposition that the just transition of jobs is very, very slim, and not real,” said Sen. Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, before joining two Republicans in voting down SB 467.
Newsom has been under increased scrutiny in recent months because of an effort to recall him from office. If the bill had reached his desk, he would have risked angering powerful business and labor groups by signing it.
“Governor Newsom got exactly what he wanted with the outcome of this vote today,” California Food and Water Watch Director Alexandra Nagy said in a statement after the bill died in committee. “He sent a fracking ban to the legislature knowing that the oil lobby would easily kill it. He was counting on it.”
Newsom has repeatedly dismissed criticism of his environmental record, arguing that he’s taken significant steps to curtail greenhouse gas emissions, including by setting a 2035 target for the state to stop selling gas-powered cars.
In a joint statement, SB 467 authors Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Sen. Monique Limón, D-Goleta, said they hoped Newsom’s Friday announcement on fracking “will trigger the long overdue conversation about what a transition away from oil looks like.”
“To date, political paralysis has prevented that conversation from happening. We hope the Governor’s action today breaks that political logjam. Legislative action likely will still be needed, and we’re ready to move that legislation,” they wrote.
This story was originally published April 23, 2021 at 12:03 PM.