SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 16, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- Two bills holding oil drillers accountable for
drilling within 3200 feet of a community passed the Assembly
Appropriations Committee today by a vote of 11 - 4 and go the
Assembly floor.
Assembly Bill 3155 (Friedman) creates new financial liability
for oil producers for harm from community oil drilling. AB 2716
(Bryan) requires committee drillers to pay a $10,000 per day fine for any well that produces
less than 15 barrels of oil per day.
64 environmental, consumer and public interest support AB 3155
and AB 2716. AB 3155 is sponsored by Consumer Watchdog and the
Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment. Consumer Watchdog is
also the sponsor of AB 2716.
"Oil drillers will face accountability for reckless drilling one
way or another," said Jamie Court,
president of Consumer Watchdog. "If they want to challenge the
legislature's limit on new community drilling permits at the ballot
box, they will face greater accountability measures for all their
oil wells. These bills deliver the message that oil drillers cannot
evade accountability for the harms the cause."
Oil drillers have put a referendum of the ballot challenging SB
1137 (Gonzalez) that ends new wells permits within a half mile of a
community.
"If oil and gas companies are going to continue to endanger the
health of California residents, it
is only fair they pay the costs when those residents get sick," the
64 groups wrote. "We need AB 3155 to protect our most
vulnerable residents from our most powerful polluters. We believe
oil companies should be held accountable for the health harms they
cause."
"We believe that it is unacceptable to allow oil drillers to
continue to run these low production wells with no economic benefit
while the people in nearby communities pay with their health," the
groups wrote about AB 2716. "This legislation holds them
accountable."
More than 2.7 million Californians live within 3,200 feet of an
existing operational oil or gas well and that number will continue
to increase with the addition of new wells.
California is home to 101,000
actively producing, idle, and newly permitted wells that have not
yet become operational, according to FracTracker Alliance. Out of
that number, 26,000 are located within the 3,200-foot health
protective zone where millions of people live.
The scientific evidence shows that a direct link exists
between drilling, pre-term births, as well as respiratory illnesses
and cancer.
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SOURCE Consumer Watchdog