Stop the Oil and Gas Drilling Takeover of Central Valley

While we were coping with a lockdown and learning how to make sourdough starter in 2020, the oil and gas industry tried to pull off the ultimate regulatory shortcut: one environmental review for thousands of oil drilling proposals.

Although we were able to fight and strike down this first attempt at this ordinance, the fossil fuel industry is trying once again to manipulate the environmental safeguards to greenlight thousands of future drilling proposals.

Right now, the Board of Supervisors (BOS) is taking public comment on this proposed oil and gas ordinance, and they need to hear from you. Now is the time to let Kern BOS know: we reject oil drilling expansion in the Central Valley.

It shouldn't be brave to call on county leadership to do the right thing and protect their constituents from harmful substances and pollutants. But in Kern County, where 80% of California's oil and gas is produced, speaking up and holding our leaders to account is often purposely difficult.

When more than 71,000 people live within 2,500 feet of oil and gas wells, Kern County officials shouldn't have a choice but to reckon with the consequences of their decisions.

Let's make sure they don't get away with bastardizing the system made to protect our communities from toxic health impacts.

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Comment re: the Draft Second Supplemental Recirculated Environmental Impact Report for Revisions to Title 19-Kern County Zoning Ordinance (2025-A) Focused on Oil and Gas Local Permitting (SCH # 2013081079)

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Dear Kern County Planning Commission and Kern County Board of Supervisors, As a resident of Kern County, I am writing to oppose the Draft Second Supplemental Recirculated Environmental Impact Report (Draft SSREIR) for "Revisions to Title 19-Kern County Zoning Ordinance - 2025(A), Focused on Oil and Gas Local Permitting" (Ordinance or Project). Kern County is already home to most of California's oil and gas production, and I do not believe the County should fast-track the development of more than 50,000 new producing wells. Research shows that oil and gas development emits toxic air pollution and is harmful to area residents, who suffer increased rates of adverse health conditions like asthma, premature births, high-risk pregnancies, and cancer. Intensifying oil and gas development also causes many other significant harms, like reducing scarce water supplies, increasing disruptive noise, diminishing views, harming wildlife, including endangered species and their habitat, and destroying valuable farmland. I am particularly troubled that, despite all these adverse consequences, the proposed ordinance would deny Kern County residents any future notice or opportunity to comment on specific activities and projects in their communities. This is unacceptable. Kern County has an obligation to protect residents from the harms of oil and gas production. I urge the County to instead, adopt measures to improve health and safety protections for local communities already threatened by oil and gas operations and pave the way for a community- and worker-led transition to a more secure and sustainable economic base for the County.

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Photo by Jesse Pluim, BLM | Image of vast oil field in Bakersfield, CA