Commentary: To break its toxic legacy, California must move away from fossil fuels
When I was a senior in high school, I had an asthma attack in the middle of a class. Unaware of what was happening, I panicked for my life. Luckily, I was passed an inhaler by a classmate, but the fear of that moment and shock to my otherwise healthy life is something implanted in my memory. As an asthmatic, I recognize this is not just my reality, but the case for many communities whose children grow up in the toxic legacy of poor air quality and illness.
These problems have been recorded for decades, yet we are still being sickened by the oil and gas industry. As we speak, fossil fuel companies are turning public lands into profit playgrounds — drilling and fracking excessively, abandoning drilling sites, leaving untapped wells next to our communities, and making us pay the price.
In California, living near oil and gas production is harmful and often deadly for our communities — linked to asthma, nose bleeds, respiratory issues, high-risk pregnancies and cancer. And lately, because of a severe mismatch in supply and demand, oil and gas corporations are leaving thousands of wells unplugged in our state. This is not only dangerous for people living nearby, it is leaving our communities with a multibillion-dollar bill for environmental cleanup.
On Jan. 27, President Biden took a significant step to stop greenlighting fossil fuel extraction by pausing new oil and gas leases on public lands. Now, it’s Gov. Newsom’s turn to build on this progress by halting new oil and gas permits here in California.
Currently, more than 2 million Californians live within 2,500 feet of an operational oil or gas well— dangerous infrastructure that is leaking toxic chemicals and flammable gases like benzene, methane and formaldehyde into neighborhoods. As climate-fueled fires worsen, drought pervades and water resources dwindle, it is California communities who have paid the price in dangerous air quality, heat and disasters that have taken too many lives. This is especially true for low-income and communities of color.
In 2019, the Trump administration opened up the sale of more public lands in California to oil and gas. Most of the acres sold are in the San Joaquin Valley, which already has some of the most severe air pollution in the country due in part to rampant oil and gas development. Meanwhile, elected officials in California — including Gov. Newsom and the Kern County Board of Supervisors — continue the poisoning of communities by permitting new fracking and drilling permits. The Newsom administration has approved more than 8,000 oil and gas permits on state and private lands in its tenure.
This is not climate leadership, and with these choices, we are locking ourselves into a future that harms our health, our children, and worsens the climate crisis.
Cutting our dependence on fossil fuels will be key to achieving climate progress that centers on communities, health and equity. President Biden should make the temporary ban on public lands permanent, and the Newsom administration should block new permits in the state, and fully phase out production.
California must urgently implement buffer zones of more than 2,500 feet. We need a full analysis of the true costs of a toxic dependence on fossil fuels — including impacts on air quality, emissions, climate change, groundwater, low-income households, communities of color, and Indigenous communities.
Our communities can no longer withstand the detrimental effects of climate change and the oil companies’ persistent attacks on our health. We must do more for our children and ensure they grow up in a future where they can breathe clean air, drink clean water and enjoy clean food.