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oil drilling
Aliso Canyon Gives Newsom a Chance to Prove Himself a Climate Champion
Trump and his “drill baby, drill” agenda poses an existential threat to our climate. We need governors to step up, lead the opposition, and advance bold policies at the state level to protect our people and planet.
Dec 16, 2024
The upcoming Trump presidency poses an existential threat to our already fragile climate. Trump has appointed a cabinet filled with climate deniers, and promised to ramp up oil drilling and gut industry regulations. In response, Governor Gavin Newsom has promised to fight Trump and advance climate progress in California.
Gov. Newsom has a national profile and has aspirations for national office. He has a chance to provide much-needed national climate leadership, but to effectively battle Trump and advance a bold agenda; he’ll need to walk back some of his prior positions and fulfill promises that are at odds with the wishes of some of his biggest corporate backers. His first early test will be to fulfill his commitment to shut down Aliso Canyon, site of the largest gas blowout in U.S. history.
No issue more strongly illustrates Newsom’s allegiance to the utility industry than the ongoing saga of Aliso Canyon.
In many ways, Newsom has indeed led on climate. Under his watch the state instituted a 3,200-foot setback between new oil wells and homes, schools and hospitals. Overall new drilling permits have declined, the legislature passed a measure to take on price gouging, and California has finally instituted a fracking ban—something that communities had demanded for years. He has also been outspoken on the national stage, challenging Florida Governor DeSantis over climate policy and generally challenging the oil and gas industry in the press.
Yet Newsom has also taken a number of positions that undermine climate progress. His Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously, for example, to gut incentives for rooftop solar. These incentives are critical for encouraging the deployment of solar across the state. This move has undermined the state’s solar industry and stalled its buildout. Pushing this action were major utilities like PG&E that are undermined by distributed energy generation. Meanwhile, he extended the life of three gas-fired power plants.
Newsom has also embraced a number of projects and programs advanced by the fossil fuel industry that masquerade as climate solutions. These include carbon capture, hydrogen and biogas (gas produced from filthy factory farm waste). The latter was recently a topic of debate before the California Air Resources Board, the vast majority of which were appointed by Newsom. The board voted to continue the state policy of incentivizing biogas under the low-carbon fuel standard program despite strong opposition from environmental groups and frontline communities.
But no issue more strongly illustrates Newsom’s allegiance to the utility industry than the ongoing saga of Aliso Canyon. The 2015 blowout there spewed more than 100,000 tons of methane and toxic chemicals over nearby Los Angeles communities, forcing thousands to temporarily relocate and making many sick. Shortly after being elected, Governor Newsom promised community members that he would “fast track” the closure of Aliso, after former Governor Brown said it should be shuttered by 2027.
Yet Aliso Canyon is operated by SoGalGas, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, which has been a big backer of Governor Newsom. In all, utilities have donated $241,200 to Newsom’s political campaigns, including $31,200 from Sempra. Despite coming in on a promise to shut down Aliso, Newsom’s Public Utilities Commission has continually expanded its use. On December 19 the commission will be considering a proposal that could keep Aliso Canyon open indefinitely. The CPUC must either continue the proceeding for additional consideration or reject this proposal outright. The only just solution is to shut down Aliso Canyon by 2027.
Trump and his “drill baby, drill” agenda poses an existential threat to our climate. We need governors to step up, lead the opposition, and advance bold policies at the state level to protect our people and planet. Gov. Newsom has a chance to be that leader, but only if he’s able to advance a policy agenda that directly takes on fossil fuel interests and big utilities at all levels, and provides a clear counterweight to what Trump is pushing. This will mean reversing course on rooftop solar, rejecting industry plans like biogas and carbon capture, and—in his next big test—shutting down the dirty and dangerous Aliso Canyon gas storage facility.
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Big Win in California as Big Oil Drops Effort to Drill Near Schools and Homes
"Big Oil spent tens of millions of dollars trying to fool voters," said one campaigner, "but it was no match for the groundswell of people power and community support."
Jun 27, 2024
Environmental, climate, and public health advocates on Thursday cheered what one green group called a "historic win" as a Big Oil industry group dropped a California ballot measure challenging a law banning oil drilling near homes, schools, and businesses.
The Sacramento Beereported that the California Independent Petroleum Association (CIPA) will withdraw its ballot measure seeking to overturn the state's ban on drilling for oil within 3,200 feet of residential, educational, and commercial buildings.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill—introduced by then-state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-80)—in September 2022.
"We just won our David vs. Goliath battle," the Protect California Communities campaign said on social media. "Big Oil officially withdrew their deceitful initiative!"
"Our law is safe and will finally take effect," the group added. "We just protected California neighborhoods from toxic oil drilling!"
CIPA chairman Jonathan Gregory issued a salty statement following the ballot measure's withdrawal.
"Supporters of the energy shutdown can make unfounded claims in the press and in paid advertisements, but they can't make those claims in court without evidence," he said, according to the Bee. "That's why we are pivoting from the referendum to a legal strategy."
However, Newsom said CIPA's move "ends harmful drilling in our communities and enforces common-sense pollution controls."
"Big Oil saw what they were up against—and they folded, again," the governor said on Thursday. "No parent in their right mind would vote to allow drilling next to daycares and playgrounds. This is a huge win for all Californians, especially the two million living within a half-mile of these operations."
Food & Water Watch California director Chirag Bhakta said in a statement that "while this is a moment to celebrate the power of people coming together to take on Big Oil, we must continue to get toxic oil drilling out of neighborhoods, as well as all fossil fuel infrastructure, which also poses a huge risk to public health and causes pollution to our water and air."
Bhakta added that Newsom must now "immediately shut down the dangerous Aliso Canyon gas storage facility which was the site of the biggest methane blowout in U.S. history almost a decade ago and is an ongoing threat to nearby residents."
Communities for a Better Environment Darryl Molina Sarmiento said that "Big Oil spent tens of millions of dollars trying to fool voters, using the profits made at the expense of community health, but it was no match for the groundswell of people power and community support we were able to unite all across California."
Food & Water Watch's Bhakta said that public opposition to repealing the law "proves once again that Californians do not want dangerous and polluting oil rigs in their backyards, near where their children go to school and play or near hospitals."
"We will not sacrifice our communities anymore," he vowed. "This victory is due to the dedication of so many, and particularly frontline communities who are experiencing the brunt of the oil industry's pollution and have been advocating for years to get dirty oil drilling out of their backyards."
Nalleli Cobo is one of those people. The 22-year-old activist—who helped found the grassroots group People Not Pozos (Spanish for wells)—is recovering from illness related to growing up alonside an oil well and has been tirelessly fighting against Big Oil's plans to drill near residential communities.
"When I was about 11, I was diagnosed with asthma. By the time I turned 19, we had shut down the drilling in our South L.A. neighborhood, but not before I was diagnosed with stage 2 reproductive cancer," Cobo explained. "I lost my ability to bear children as a result. After three surgeries, eight minor procedures, three rounds of chemotherapy, and six weeks of radiation, I was cancer-free as of two years ago, at 20."
"My experience, like that of others who live in neighborhoods polluted by oil drilling, is a constant reminder that those in power do not value our health and wellbeing," she added. "It's a signal that some communities are expendable, that our lives don't matter as much as the fossil fuel industry's profits."
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Landmark UK Supreme Court Ruling 'Slams Brakes' on New Fossil Fuel Projects
"This is a welcome step towards a safer, fairer future," said the climate campaigner who brought the legal challenge.
Jun 20, 2024
In a landmark decision that could spell doom for all new fossil fuel projects in the country, the United Kingdom's highest court ruled Thursday that local planning authorities unlawfully failed to consider the full planet-warming emissions impact when they approved a drilling initiative that was expected to yield more than 3 million tonnes of oil over two decades.
The most recent challenge to the closely watched drilling project was brought to the U.K. Supreme Court in 2023 by climate campaigner Sarah Finch, who argued that the Surrey County Council's granted permission for new oil wells at Horse Hill without taking into account future emissions from burning the fossil fuel produced at the sites—so-called "downstream" emissions.
In a 3-2 decision, the U.K.'s high court ruled that the Surrey council's approval of the Horse Hill drilling "was unlawful because the emissions that will occur when the oil produced is burnt as fuel are within the scope of the [environmental impact assessment] required by law."
"The oil and gas companies may act like business-as-usual is still an option, but it will be very hard for planning authorities to permit new fossil fuel developments."
Finch said Thursday that she is "absolutely over the moon to have won this important case."
"This is a welcome step towards a safer, fairer future," Finch continued. "The oil and gas companies may act like business-as-usual is still an option, but it will be very hard for planning authorities to permit new fossil fuel developments—in the Weald, the North Sea, or anywhere else—when their true climate impact is clear for all to see."
Friends of the Earth U.K., which backed Finch's legal challenge, called the court's ruling "a heavy blow for the fossil fuel industry," noting that the decision "could have ramifications for other proposed fossil fuel projects, such as the Whitehaven coal mine, as well as projects to extract oil from the North Sea."
Scientists have made clear that no new oil and gas projects are consistent with efforts to limit planetary warming to 1.5°C by century's end.
"If developers are now obliged to present the full climate impacts of their projects (instead of just a fraction of those impacts, as has largely happened up until now), then decision-makers may well think twice before granting them planning permission," Friends of the Earth U.K. said in a statement Thursday.
Extinction Rebellion U.K., another supporter of Finch's challenge, said Thursday's ruling effectively "slams brakes" on new fossil fuel projects in the country.
"Not only does today's Supreme Court ruling destroy [U.K. Oil and Gas'] plans to drill for up to 3.3 million tonnes of crude oil for 20 years at its Horse Hill site, near Gatwick Airport, but also has huge implications for all future fossil fuel projects in the U.K.," the organization said. "Neither the Cumbrian coal mine in Whitehaven nor the Rosebank oil field in the North Sea sought consent for their projects. Nor did they provide any information on downstream emissions in their environmental statements. Both projects are the subjects of legal challenges."
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