FILE – In this July 24, 2019, file photo, Gov. Gavin Newsom, left, is briefed by Jason Marshall, of the California Department of Conservation, Division of Oil and Gas, center; Billy Lacobie, of Chevron, while touring the Chevron oil field in McKittrick, Calif. Newsom says he is encouraged by Chevron’s efforts to clean up what has turned into the state’s largest oil spill in decades. California Gov. Newsom moved Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020 to end issuing new hydraulic fracturing permits by 2024, a delay criticized by many environmental groups but characterized as legally and politically realistic by another. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool, File)Irfan Khan / Associated Press
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom is preparing a plan to phase out the oil extraction method known as fracking in California, according to environmentalists who were briefed on the effort.
Newsom is facing pressure to act from environmentalists who oppose fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, after a bill that would have banned it and some other extraction methods died in the Legislature last week.
Several members of environmental groups told The Chronicle on Thursday that they had been notified of an imminent announcement by Newsom to rein in fracking. Politico, citing unidentified environmental, legislative and industry sources, said the governor would ban new fracking permits starting in 2024.
The governor’s office said it had no information to share and did not respond to a request for further comment.
Fracking, in which high-pressure liquids are injected into the earth to release oil and gas deposits, accounts for only about 2% of California’s oil production, according to the state Department of Conservation. But it’s long been a controversial method because of what climate activists see as unacceptable dangers, including the possibility that it can contaminate groundwater.
Several environmentalists said Thursday that they would be disappointed by any fracking measure that does not eliminate new permits well before 2024 and restrict existing operations.
Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, said that although she had not been briefed on the plan, she was skeptical of what she’d heard about a potential 2024 timeline.
“A fracking ban is essential,” she said. “But we need it now, not years down the line — 2024 doesn’t make any sense.” Climate Change
Alexandra Nagy, director of Food & Water Watch California, said in a statement that fracking is especially problematic now because operators use large amounts of water, and the state is in a drought.
“Banning new fracking permits three years from now does nothing to help people whose communities are being drilled and fracked today,” she said. “Now that the governor finally acknowledges he can take this action, he needs to do it now.”
The governor said he would support legislation to halt new fracking permits by 2024. At the time, he said he could not ban fracking without legislative approval, although many environmentalists disagreed.
Wiener and Limon’s legislation, SB467, was met with resistance from the oil industry and labor groups, which said it would eliminate nearly all California oil production and cost thousands of jobs. The bill failed to clear its first committee hearing last week.
Wiener is now considering introducing a pared-down version of the bill that would require 2,500-foot buffer zones between oil wells and homes, schools and other public places. A similar bill stalled in the Legislature last year.
After Encana/Ovintiv illegally frac’d my community’s drinking water aquifers, chromium in my water went up by a factor of 45. Regulator water testing found hexavalent chromium in Rosebud Hamlet monitoring wells, but did not tell any of the impacted residents. I obtained the data by FOIP, went public with it.