Climate Point: Southern California voters reject measures to add review to oil drilling

Oil derricks dot the landscape in Ventura County, a coastal county in Southern California — some of which are operated under antiquated permits issued from 1948 to 1950 without any environmental impact reviews. 

These permits apply to roughly 60% of the estimated 4,000 wells in the county, Cheri Carlson and Kathleen Wilson reported for the Ventura County Star in May. Holders of these decades-old permits can get drilling projects approved with relatively simple zoning clearances, as little as $330, and in a process that typically only takes between four to six weeks, Carlson and Wilson write. Some of these permits have no expiration dates or limits on the number of allowed wells, and little analysis of the local environmental impacts of additional drilling. 

This month, voters rejected two ballot measures that would have subjected new projects under these permits — such as drilling or deepening wells — to more modern environmental review. 

The ballot measures stemmed from two land-use amendments approved by county supervisors in 2020. But opponents of the measure collected enough signatures to stop the new rules from taking effect, instead posing the question to voters. The oil industry heavily bankrolled the campaign, raising $8.2 million to oppose the measures in the costliest campaign in the county's history. Meanwhile, environmental groups supporting the measures raised around $1.1 million. 

Steve Bennett, a former county supervisor who spearheaded the proposed changes, described the campaigns as "a classic grassroots versus — not big money — gigantic money."

“We worked on it for 20 years before we finally found a legal way to do it," Bennett, now a state assemblyman, told Carlson. "Then, they spent a lot of money to stop that from happening.”

Now, local environmental groups are considering other options to hold the oil industry accountable, Carlson reports. 

Here are some other stories of interest this week.