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President Donald Trump administration’s plans to expand oil drilling across the state, including in parts of the Bay Area, are another step closer to moving forward after the federal Bureau of Land Management announced Monday that fracking would have “minimal” negative impacts on the environment.
With Trump’s efforts to reduce America’s reliance on oil imports by increasing drilling on U.S. soil, a renewed plan to boost oil production in California is back in motion.
“America is blessed with an abundance of energy and natural resources that have historically powered our nation’s economic prosperity,” reads Trump’s executive order to boost domestic oil drilling. “It is thus in the national interest to unleash America’s affordable and reliable energy and natural resources.”
Under the onshore plan, BLM is eyeing a total of more than 1 million acres across the Bay Area, Central Valley and Southern California for fossil fuel drilling.
In the Bay Area, the proposal could target lands around Pinnacles National Park, Mount Diablo State Park, Henry W. Coe State Park and the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve.
BLM released a draft supplemental environmental impact statement for the Central Coast region on Monday, a 100-page review that was conducted to analyze the potential environmental harms that drilling for oil could pose in the areas slated for development.
It concluded that “emissions from oil and gas development are minor and not expected to significantly impact regional air quality or public health.”
It also determined that risks to water resources and wildlife “are minimal”, the statement said.
But environmental advocacy organizations, like the Center for Biological Diversity, said the new analyses are “still inadequate”.
“California’s public lands are a refuge for human wonder and beautiful wildlife, not places for Trump’s oil and gas cronies to exploit and pollute,” said Victoria Bogdan Tejeda, an attorney with the center, in a statement.
The areas targeted for drilling are home to threatened and endangered animals and plants like San Joaquin kit foxes, giant kangaroo rats, burrowing owls, California condors and the California jewelflower, according to the Center.
“We’ll fight his perverse effort to worsen climate change and expose California’s people and wildlife to more toxic pollution from dirty drilling and fracking,” Bogdan Tejeda said.
The draft supplemental environmental impact statement was a required part of BLM’s plans to expand oil and gas production in the state after several environmental groups and counties challenged the Trump administration’s initial plans to expand oil drilling during his first administration.
In 2020, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, and the counties of Santa Cruz and Monterey filed a complaint against BLM, arguing that the plan did not sufficiently evaluate the possible harm to the environment.
As part of a settlement agreement, BLM was mandated to perform the additional environmental review.
The BLM is accepting public comments on the plan until March 6, with a finalized version of the environmental impact statement slated to be published in May.
The Trump administration’s efforts to boost oil drilling has also eyed offshore sites along California’s coast, a move that environmental activist groups say could increase the risk of oil spills and harm to natural habitats.
Public comments regarding the offshore drilling plan will be accepted until next Friday (Jan. 23).
“We won’t let this administration get away with permanently destroying our public lands,” Bogdan Tejeda said.
– Story by Alise Maripuu, Bay City News Service
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