Bakersfield, CA – Big Oil’s capture of the regulatory apparatus from top to bottom in the supposedly “green” state of California is exemplified by the ongoing case of state agencies failing to protect a Kern County Community from the harmful health impacts of leaking abandoned oil wells.
While onsite to verify that two abandoned oil wells in a residential neighborhood were no longer pouring methane into the community since being sealed on Friday, inspectors with the California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM), the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) uncovered four more leaking wells, according to a press statement from Voices in Solidarity Against Oil in Neighborhoods (VISIÓN).
“Emissions at each of the newly discovered wells peaked the inspectors’ methane-monitoring devices at 50,000 ppm, the highest level recordable, while actual concentrations could be higher,” the coalition stated. “This puts the homes just 400 feet away in immediate danger as methane at these levels can be explosive. Methane leakage also indicates that other harmful chemicals are likely present in the gas, including carcinogenic compounds such as benzene and toluene.”
“The inspection further revealed a host of additional health and safety violations, including but not limited to missing wellheads, lack of pressure gauges, missing bolts on wellheads, and cellars full of fluid. Households in the surrounding area report suffering from headaches, nausea, and dizziness, and one family has fled their home for safety. Due to the viscosity of the oil underground, air quality regulators claim their regulations do not apply,” they stated.
“No agency has issued a warning to nearby residents of the pressing health and safety risks, but an unnamed CalGEM engineer said to the Desert Sun that the situation is ‘a ticking time bomb,’” VISION noted.
Voices in Solidarity Against Oil in Neighborhoods (VISIÓN), a coalition of environmental justice organizations, released the following demands:
(1) CalGEM and the SJVAPCD immediately alert the community to the ongoing health and safety risks;
(2) CalGEM and California air regulators immediately inspect the pressure and safety of the field, including inspecting all 200 wells in the area;
(3) CalGEM plug and abandon the leaking wells as soon as possible;
(4) CalGEM remedy the health and safety risk these wells present statewide by confirming their ongoing setbacks rulemaking process applies to existing wells;
(5) CARB and the SJVAPCD update their oil and gas rules to eliminate all loopholes that prevent them from taking action to fix leaks such as this;
(6) SJVAPCD and CARB record and publicly release all inspection reports; and
(7) CalGEM pursue aggressive enforcement of the operator to recoup well remediation costs, and require the Sunray Inc., Appeal process to be made public and livestreamed.
“This level of methane emissions within a few hundred feet of homes is an urgent public health issue,” said David J.X. González, PhD, an environmental epidemiologist and President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California Berkeley. “Researchers have found that methane emissions from abandoned wells, which are disproportionately located in Black and Latinx neighborhoods, likely means other air toxics are being emitted too, which can cause birth defects, neurological damage, impaired hearing, and some cancers. This raises concerns for the estimated hundreds of thousands of other abandoned wells across the state, most of which are not regularly monitored for health-harming or greenhouse gas emissions.”
Well owners have been out of compliance with regulations since 2017
While community groups recently uncovered this catastrophe, VISION said CalGEM has known that the well owners, SunRay Petroleum, Inc, have been out of compliance with its regulations since 2017. On May 2, CalGEM issued an Order to Sunray Petroleum to plug the abandoned wells, decommission production facilities, and restore well sites for 28 idle wells, including the ones found this past week.
The Order was issued in response to a failure to pay idle well fees and submit an Idle Well Testing Compliance work plan as well as numerous oilfield-related violations ranging from missing well signs, cellars full of fluid, missing bolts on wellheads, to out-of-service facility requirements not being satisfied. Sunray Petroleum, Inc., appealed that order on May 13 and the matter will be heard by an administrative law judge.
While the surrounding community has not been notified of the health and safety risks by any public agency, Cesar Aguirre from VISIÓN member group Central California Environmental Justice Network canvassed over 150 homes in the surrounding area to alert residents to the leaks.
Aguirre said one family living nearby to the wells reported suffering from headaches, nausea, and dizziness for the past few weeks, while other residents could explicitly discern the smell of gas. Another family has evacuated to safety.
Response by regulators shows complete disrespect for community’s safety
“The response from CalGEM, CARB, and the local San Joaquín Valley Air District show complete disrespect for the safety of this community,” said Nayamin Martinez, Director of the Central California Environmental Justice Network. “Nobody from the government is communicating anything to residents about these health risks. California government agencies have so many resources and they all fall short in informing the communities whose health is at risk. Why is it always up to us?”
Normally, oil wells develop increasing pressure due to the buildup of gas in the pipes and this pressurized gas is collected or flared to avoid explosions, according to Martinez. At this site, most wells had none of the required infrastructure to detect, collect or flare gas, nor any pressure gauges to determine their explosive potential. Adding insult to injury, the wells are in an open field with dry grass and they are officially classified as “critical wells,” meaning they’re within 300 ft of a building intended for human occupancy.
A CalGEM agency engineer said to the Desert Sun that with the two wells recently capped, “What’s happening underground should be a major concern.” The staffer said both the hurried repairs done on the first two wells and the so-far unchecked leaking from four more wells could mean large amounts of the explosive gas may be seeping through natural cracks or pipes below ground and building up to dangerous levels under or near homes. “With potentially damaged wells close to residents,” the staffer explained, “it’s a ticking time bomb.”
“When I found out about the situation, I was shocked,” said Cesar Aguirre, Senior Community Organizer for the Central California Environmental Justice Network.“There’s no fence to protect community members, missing signs, missing bolts on the well heads, and one of the sites didn’t even have a wellhead. It’s industry standard to check on idle wells every month, but it’s clear nobody from the state had been to this site in decades. It’s like a graveyard.”
Due to the supposed viscosity of the crude oil underground, CARB and the Air District’s methane rules limiting fugitive well emissions do not apply.
Kobi Naseck: there are hundreds of thousands of ‘ticking time bombs’
“Our reality, especially in places like Kern, LA, and Ventura counties, is that there are hundreds of thousands of ticking time bombs in the form of abandoned oil and gas sites. Together, these abandoned sites put the more than two million Californians living within a kilometer of wellheads at serious risk every day, and it’s past time for CalGEM to do something about it,” said Kobi Naseck, Coalition Coordinator, Voices in Solidarity Against Oil in Neighborhoods. “The Morningstar wells have been inactive for almost forty years, and we have no idea how long they – or any other of the 150,000+ abandoned and idle wells in the state – have been leaking methane. We need the health and safety setbacks rule to apply to existing wellsites to prevent any future neighborhood catastrophes like this from happening again.”
Maricruz Ramirez, Community Organizer for the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment concluded, “We cannot continue to allow greedy oil operators to come directly into our neighborhoods, disregard regulations, profit off harming our communities’ health, and then walk away from the harm they’ve caused. They need to be held accountable for oil well remediation and decommissioning to restore the land. Taxpayers should not be left with the burden of paying for this clean-up.”
On May 20, California State Oil and Gas Supervisor Uduak-Joe Ntuk issued the following statement on two long-term idle wells in Bakersfield, California that were discovered to be leaking and are now repaired:
“CalGEM deployed inspectors yesterday to evaluate the methane emissions from two long term idle wells operated by Sunray Petroleum. We have been coordinating with the operator and local first responders to determine the wells do not pose an immediate threat to public health or safety. While the pinhole-sized leaks were determined to be minor in nature, CalGEM contractors were able to seal both wells today.”
The Cause: Deep Regulatory Capture by Big Oil from Top to Bottom:
A May 2022 update to its Tracking the Dirty Dollars Project by Sierra Club California provides some clarity why California’s environmental policies, including protecting neighborhoods like Morning Star from the dangerous health impacts of oil and gas drilling, don't live up to the “green” words of the state’s politicians.
This update reveals that only 15 legislators have not received campaign contributions from polluters and their allies since January 1, 2021.
“The report comes just as many Californians are beginning to fill out their ballots for the primary elections,” the Sierra Club reported today. “This election season, polluting industries have already spent more than $1.8 million in contributions to candidates’ campaigns.”
You can read the full overview for this report here and the report spreadsheets here.
The Club said the number of legislators that report more than $10,000 in dirty donations has grown from 17 in their last edition to a whopping 58 in this edition. Thirty-one legislators have received more than $20,000, 10 have received more than $30,000, and 3 have received more than $40,000 in contributions from oil and gas interests.
“As Californians fill out their ballots in the coming weeks, it’s more important than ever that transparent resources like the Dirty Dollars project exist to help inform their voting decisions,” said Brandon Dawson, director of Sierra Club California. “This election will be crucial in determining if Sacramento has the leadership necessary to confront the climate crisis, and voters should take into account the contributions that candidates accept from polluting interests as they cast their votes.”
Democratic Senator Steve Glazer leads all legislators reporting $66,000 in contributions from dirty donors, according to the Club. The vast majority of these contributions were directed to his campaign for State Controller. A large portion of these contributions came directly from the likes of Phillips 66, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Valero.
“Republican Assemblymember Heath Flora placed second in total dirty donations with $53,000 dirty dollars. Asm. Flora is one of many Republicans who’ve accepted dirty donations this campaign cycle. So far, the California Republican Party Political Action Committee has accepted $1,245,175 in donations from polluting industries,” the Club stated.
“Unfortunately, many Democrats in the Assembly reported high dirty donation totals. Among the Assembly Democrats, Asm. Tom Daly leads with $44,100 dirty dollars. Asm. Jim Cooper, a Democratic favorite of the oil and gas industry, reported $36,350 in contributions from polluters and their friends,” the Club revealed.
“Other unsurprising names on the high-roller list include Asm. Tim Grayson ($32,900), Asm. Freddie Rodriguez ($31,000), Asm. Blanca Rubio ($31,000), Asm. Sharon Quirk Silva ($29,695), Asm. James Ramos ($28,000), Asm. Adam Gray ($27,200), Asm. Jose Medina ($26,700), Asm. Carlos Villapudua ($24,400), and Asm. Rudy Salas Jr. ($23,300). The California Democratic Party PAC accepted $60,000 in dirty dollars,” the group concluded.
Sierra Club California launched the Tracking the Dirty Dollars Project in November 2020 to shed light on oil and gas contributions to legislators and other state-level elected officials. The project sorts through existing public databases to identify who receives contributions from oil and gas companies and their allies through direct campaign contributions, independent expenditure campaigns, and gifts.
The project then presents the information in a clear format that makes it much easier for the general public and environmental activists to see what their elected leaders have received.
A cover report discussing the November installment and the data sheets comprising the three installments is available on Sierra Club California’s website. More information about the project is included in a November 2020 blog e-mailed to Sierra Club members and supporters around the state.
Oil and gas regulators continue to issue thousands of oil and gas permits
The Sierra Club May update was released as oil and gas regulators in California continue to issue thousands of oil and gas drilling permits.
The state’s oil and gas regulatory agency, CalGEM, has approved a total of 10,983 oil drilling permits from January 1, 2019 through March 31, 2022, Consumer Watchdog and Fractracker Alliance revealed at www.NewsomWellWatch.org. In addition, the groups found that the Newsom Administration approved 150 offshore drilling permits in state waters since January 1, 2019.
In the first quarter of this year, CalGem approved 639 total permits, a 3.2% increase from Gov. Newsom Q1 2021. 131 of those were new oil well permits, a 36% increase Q1 2021, while 508 were rework permits, a 2.9% decrease from QI 2021.
California oil and gas regulators have also approved 150 offshore drilling permits in state waters since January 1, 2019. Of those permits, five were for new wells and the rest were for reworking existing wells, according to Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance.
WSPA, the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying group in Sacramento, has spent over $17.5 million lobbying the California Legislature and other state officials over the past three years.
In the first quarter of 2022, WSPA continued its lobbying spending spree, dumping $952,366.91 into lobbying California officials, according to the latest data from the California Secretary of State’s website. Chevron spent even more money than WSPA in lobbying, $1,016,168.17, during the quarter.
However, it wasn’t either WSPA or Chevron that topped the fossil fuel lobbying expenses in the first quarter. Sempra Energy and Affiliates, including SoCalGas and the San Diego Gas and Electric Company, moved into first place with $1,961,178.39 in expenses in just the three month period.
Altogether, WSPA, Chevron, Sempra and other oil and gas corporations and trade associations pumped a total of $6 million into advancing the fossil fuel industry agenda in 2022’s first quarter.
Over the past four years, fossil fuel companies paid almost $77.5 million to lobby lawmakers in Sacramento, reported Josh Slowiczek in Capital and Main on May 14.
“Oil and gas interests spent four times as much as environmental advocacy groups and almost six times as much as clean energy firms on lobbying efforts in California between 2018 and 2021, according to a Capital & Main analysis — reflecting the intensity of the industry’s efforts to influence policy in a state whose leaders have vowed to build an energy future free of fossil fuels,” Slowiczek wrote.
California remains a major oil and gas producing state, although it has declined from its place as the nation’s third largest oil producer over the past several years. The state was 7th (2021) and 14th (2020) for oil and marketed natural gas production, respectively, among the 50 states, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Production of oil was about 131M barrels in 2021 and continues to decline from the 1985 peak
WSPA and Big Oil wield their power in 8 major ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) serving on and putting shills on regulatory panels; (4) creating Astroturf groups; (5) working in collaboration with media; (6) creating alliances with labor unions; (7) contributing to non profit organizations; and (8) sponsoring awards ceremonies, including those for legislators and journalists.