California groups are speaking out against moves by the Bureau of Land Management to open up new leases for oil and gas drilling in the Bakersfield area and on the Central Coast.
Public comment is open now through March 13 on the Environmental Impact Statements for both regions.
Felipe Perez, former mayor and current city council member in Firebaugh in Fresno County, said the area is already choked with dirty air from existing wells.
“In Kern County, anyone can smell the pollution there from oil and gas operations,” Perez pointed out. “People breathe it in all the time; areas where mainly people of color live. People’s lives should always come before corporate profits.”
President Donald Trump has made it a priority to support the oil and gas industry, promising regulatory relief if they contributed $1 billion to his campaign.
Angel Alfaro Carranza, energy security solutions program officer for the group Elected Officials to Protect America, said drilling sites can emit toxic air pollution, bring increased truck traffic and contaminate the water.
“Public lands belong to all Californians and should be managed for their ecological, cultural and recreational values,” Carranza contended. “Not sacrificed for extractive industries looking to make profits.”
Dr. Ashley E. McClure, a primary care internist and cofounder and codirector of the nonprofit Climate Health Now, said Californians need to make their voices heard.
“We can succeed,” McClure emphasized. “But it’s going to take a lot more people calling up our representatives to say, ‘I do not want over a million acres in California of our public lands to be opened up for new oil and gas drilling. I want you to oppose this.'”
Written by Susanne Potter.
