California has reached a settlement with federal officials to cease leasing public land for natural gas and oil development in the central part of the state until potential risks are assessed.
State Attorney General (AG) Rob Bonta said the moratorium announced Monday followed years of legal challenges by environmental groups and state officials.
One lawsuit, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, accused the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), under the Trump administration, of allowing more than one million acres of public land in Central California to be available for drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) without full assessments of air quality and groundwater.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Western Division (No.2:20-cv-00371-DSF).
“Fracking is dangerous for our communities, damaging to our environment, and out of step with California’s climate goals,” Bonta said. “In keeping with the Bureau of Land Management’s mission to preserve the health of our public lands, it must reassess this Trump-era mistake.”
Bonta and his predecessor in the AG’s office, Xavier Becerra, claimed that BLM did not evaluate risks or how to mitigate them in Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura counties.
Under the settlement, BLM agreed to not lease the lands in question until environmental concerns are reviewed.
“Protecting public lands is not only a step forward, but also a way to prevent several steps back,” said Cesar Aguirre, a senior organizer with the Central California Environmental Justice Network. “Using public lands to prop up the oil industry is dangerous to our green spaces and communities. We must protect our public lands not only for us to enjoy, but for us to protect Earth.”
