Advanced BioFuels USA

(Our Daily Planet)  While California Governor Gavin Newsom has called his state “a leader in the fight to transition away from fossil fuels,” watchdog groups have been calling out the fact that California is continuing to issue oil and gas extraction permits. In fact, as AP reported, despite pushing back against the Trump administration’s plan to expand oil extraction in California, the state has issued 190% more new oil and gas drilling permits in the first six months of 2020 than were approved under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first six months in office.

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Why This Matters: Last year, Newsom was also criticized for the rate at which California issued fracking permits and he promised a crackdown on fracking projects and a moratorium on new oil wells that use high-pressure steam. But activists were angered when permits began to be issued again this year.

Despite California’s many aggressive climate action goals, the oil and gas industry continues to be a substantial presence in the state. Former governor Jerry Brown supported fracking, drawing ire from environmentalists, and some groups worry that Governor Newsom will follow a similar path to Brown’s.

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Unjust Extraction: Living near oil and gas wells is tied to a series of health risks including low birth weight in infants. And in California, oil wells aren’t just in rural places, they’re immersed in its biggest cities, bringing their hazards to densely populated areas.

The state had an opportunity to help lessen the exposure vulnerable communities have to wells, but 3 state Senate Democrats whose campaigns are in part supported by the fossil fuel industry (Bob Hertzberg from the San Fernando Valley, Ben Hueso of Imperial County, and Anna Caballero of the Salinas Valley) voted against the legislation to do so. As Grist explained,

• A bill that would have fought pollution and environmental racism by mandating a buffer zone between California residents and oil and gas wells was voted down last week in the California Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water.
• The bill, AB 345, would have required a setback between oil and gas wells and the 5.4 million Californians currently living near drilling sites. Almost 92 percent of the Californians who both live within a mile of a well and are burdened by pollution are people of color.
• California is the seventh-largest oil-producing state, home to more than 100,000 oil and gas wells, many of which are located in urban areas.

What’s worse is that across the state, according to an LA Times exposé, “fossil fuel companies are leaving thousands of oil and gas wells unplugged and idle, potentially threatening the health of people living nearby and handing taxpayers a multibillion-dollar bill for the environmental cleanup.”  READ MORE

What else? (Politico’s Morning Energy)

THE COST OF ORPHAN WELLS: (Politico’s Morning Energy)

BLM TO HOLD CALIFORNIA OIL LEASE SALE IN DECEMBER: (Politico’s Morning Energy)

Excerpt from Politico’s Morning Energy:  What else? Newsom also announced he was asking state lawmakers to implement a fracking ban by 2024, Pro’s Jeremy B. White and Colby report. But he stopped short of directing his own oil and gas regulators to stop approving fracking permits — drawing frustration from environmentalists, who have increased their criticism of Newsom on fracking in recent days, especially as the governor has emphasized California’s role in fighting climate change.  READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico’s Morning Energy:  THE COST OF ORPHAN WELLS: U.S. state and federal regulators have put taxpayers at risk of $280 billion in cleanup costs by not requiring oil and gas companies to provide sufficient financial assurance when drilling wells, according to a new report this morning from environmental research firm Carbon Tracker. The report examined the financial risk facing taxpayers across major U.S. oil-producing states, finding that the total undiscounted cost to retire existing onshore wells totals $117 billion in Texas, $31 billion in Oklahoma and $15 billion in Pennsylvania.

The report also said fracked wells will likely have shorter lives and cost more to close than expected. “The combination of more wells, greater depths, and shorter lifespans means shale drillers will incur higher [plug and abandon] costs sooner,” the report said. “This unfavorable math increases the likelihood that operators will default, passing these liabilities on to governments who are equally unprepared for the new math of shale drilling.”  READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico’s Morning Energy:  BLM TO HOLD CALIFORNIA OIL LEASE SALE IN DECEMBER:The Bureau of Land Management will sell leases to over 4,100 acres of federal land in California for new fossil fuel drilling despite opposition from environmentalists and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), California Pro Colby Bermel reports. The agency first proposed selling leases for 1.2 million acres in April 2019 after a protracted legal fight. The sale is expected to take place the week of Dec. 7.  READ MORE