SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Supreme Court dominated Thursday that Monterey County can not implement a voter-approved ban on new oil and gasoline wells, a call that comes amid an ongoing battle over how the state ought to deal with the well being and local weather impacts of fossil gas extraction.
The ruling comes a day after environmental advocates introduced a plan to attempt to enshrine a state legislation banning new gasoline and oil wells close to houses, colleges and hospitals because the oil trade vies for voters to overturn it. Voters may face dueling measures on the November 2024 poll.
The courtroom’s choice dealt a blow to native advocates, who’ve been preventing for years to alter the practices of the oil trade. Voters within the county first permitted the ban in 2016, shortly after which Chevron sued. The state Supreme Court mentioned the state, not the county, has the authority to control sure strategies of oil manufacturing that may have been banned by the measure.
Laura Solorio, president of Protect Monterey County, which pushed to get the native initiative handed, mentioned she was shocked and disillusioned by the ruling.
“We need to really pressure legislators to develop better regulations to ban new oil and gas drilling in the state,” Solorio mentioned.
The initiative, often called Measure Z, got down to ban fracking, which includes injecting fluids into the bottom to assist oil come up; in addition to new oil and gasoline wells; and one other follow often called wastewater injection.
“Chevron is pleased that this decision brings an end to seven years of litigation and appeals,” mentioned Jeffrey Dintzer, a lawyer representing Chevron, in an announcement.
Dintzer mentioned the power trade in California “is crucial to both the state and local economies.”
In 2022, Central Coast’s Monterey County was the third largest oil producer within the state, producing 5.1 million barrels yearly, based on the state’s Department of Conservation. That’s in comparison with 88 million barrels produced in Kern County in California’s Central Valley, and barely behind Los Angeles County, which produces almost 9 million barrels onshore.
Proponents of Measure Z stay hopeful the ruling won’t have a rippling impact on different native measures. The Los Angeles metropolis council voted final yr to ban new oil and gasoline drilling. In San Benito County, which is south of the San Francisco Bay Area, residents voted to ban fracking in 2014.
The California State Association of Counties filed a authorized doc asking the state Supreme Court to uphold the measure, arguing native governments have lengthy held authority to restrict oil operations and regulate the place wells could be positioned.
The Supreme Court didn’t challenge a call on the measure’s ban on fracking, a follow not presently utilized in Monterey County, which is 100 miles (161 kilometers) south of San Francisco. At the state stage, Gov. Gavin Newsom mentioned in 2021 that California ought to cease issuing fracking permits by 2024.
Passing Measure Z was a method for voters to implement “popular and common-sense health protections” after the county board of supervisors rejected a fracking ban, mentioned Hollin Kretzmann, a lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
“It’s about oil and gas, but it’s also about the will of the voters and being able to take control and make decisions about your health and the direction of your county and city at the local level,” Kretzmann mentioned.
The struggle in Monterey County displays a bigger dispute between California’s Democratic leaders and the oil and gasoline trade.
California has made itself identified for setting bold targets to transition towards renewable power sources, as within the purpose to take away as many carbon emissions because it releases by 2045. But whereas the state produces about half as a lot crude oil every day because it did within the 2000s, it’s nonetheless additionally among the many high oil producers within the nation, based on the U.S. Department of Energy. It trails behind states that embody Texas, New Mexico and North Dakota.
Newsom’s administration has handed quite a few legal guidelines and laws geared toward shrinking the oil and gasoline trade. He desires to halt all oil drilling within the state by 2045 and signed a legislation final yr to ban new wells inside 3,200 toes (975 meters) of houses, colleges, parks and different neighborhood websites.
That legislation was placed on maintain as a result of the oil trade certified a referendum to ask voters to overturn it in November 2024. Environmental advocates launched a marketing campaign Wednesday to place a separate measure on the poll to attempt to maintain the legislation.
“People who live next to oil wells get very, very sick. Californians who live next to this stuff, they have headaches, nosebleeds, nausea,” mentioned Kassie Siegel, director of the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “You do not want the oil company moving in next door.”
The California Independent Petroleum Association is behind the referendum to ask voters to overturn the legislation, and the group collected sufficient signatures earlier this yr to place it on the poll. Rock Zierman, the group’s CEO, mentioned conserving the legislation would burden oil corporations in California at a time after they already should comply with what he referred to as a few of the strictest environmental and labor legal guidelines on the planet.
The Legislature is weighing whether or not to alter the referendum course of, so Californians don’t get confused about whether or not they’re voting to uphold or to overturn a legislation. The laws would have voters resolve to both “keep the law” or to “overturn the law.” That would imply a departure from a “yes” vote to maintain the legislation or a “no” vote to overturn it.
• Sophie Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points.
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