May 10, 2019 - MARINA, Calif.— The Trump administration yesterday finalized a plan to open 725,500 acres of public lands and mineral estate across California’s Central Coast and the Bay 
Area to new oil and gas drilling. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management plan is an increase of nearly 327,000 acres from the draft proposal prepared under the Obama administration.
The public lands earmarked for leasing in today’s resource management plan are in the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Merced, Monterey, San Benito, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Stanislaus.
“Trump’s new plan aims to stab oil derricks and fracking rigs into some of California’s most beautiful landscapes,” said Clare Lakewood, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “From Monterey to the Bay Area, the president wants to let oil companies drill and spill their way across our beloved public lands and wildlife habitat. As we fight climate chaos, there’s no justification for any new drilling and fracking, let alone this outrageous assault on our pristine wild places.”
Today’s move comes just weeks after the Trump administration released its draft plan to reopen more than a million acres of public land and federal mineral estate in the Central California region (including Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura counties) to fossil fuel extraction. Together the plans target a total of 1,736,970 acres across 19 California counties.
The plans would end a five-year-old moratorium on leasing federal public land and mineral estate in the state to oil companies. The BLM has not held a single lease sale in California since 2013, when a judge ruled that the agency violated the law when it issued oil leases in Monterey and Fresno Counties without considering the risks of fracking. The ruling responded to a suit brought by the Center and the Sierra Club challenging a BLM decision to auction off about 2,500 acres of land in those counties to oil companies.
Fracking is an extreme oil-extraction process that blasts toxic chemicals mixed with water underground to crack rocks. According to the BLM, about 90 percent of new oil and gas wells on public lands are fracked.
A 2015 report from the California Council on Science and Technology concluded that fracking in California happens at unusually shallow depths, dangerously close to underground drinking water supplies, with unusually high concentrations of toxic chemicals.
In 2016 Monterey County voters passed Measure Z, which bans fracking, new oil and gas wells and new waste-injection wells. San Benito County voters have also passed a ballot measure banning fracking. Alameda County has passed an ordinance banning fracking, and Santa Cruz County has passed an ordinance banning fracking and all other oil and gas development.
The BLM’s regulations provide a 60-day window for Gov. Gavin Newsom to review the plan for any inconsistencies with state and local plans and policies and provide recommendations. If the BLM rejects such recommendations, the governor can appeal that determination.
Other parties may also protest the plan and file a lawsuit if the protest is denied.
“In California and across the country, the Trump administration is putting our communities and our climate at risk as they prioritize fossil fuel industry profits over the health and safety of our families,” said Monica Embrey, a Sierra Club senior campaign representative. "We will use every tool at our disposal to push back against this reckless proposal and protect our public lands from fracking.”
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.4 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Source: Center for Biological Diversity
CENTRAL COAST FIELD OFFICE RELEASES FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS FOR OIL AND GAS
Planning document analyzes six alternative approaches to oil and gas leasing and development, specifies which lands would be open and the stipulations to be applied to protect resources
MARINA, Calif. – The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Central Coast Field Office has released a proposed resource management plan amendment (RMPA) and final environmental impact statement (EIS) for oil and gas leasing and development. This effort supports the Administration’s goals of promoting environmentally responsible development of oil and gas on public lands, creating jobs and providing economic opportunities for local communities.
This planning document analyzes six alternative approaches to oil and gas leasing and development, specifies which BLM-managed public lands or subsurface Federal mineral estate would be open to future oil and gas leasing and the stipulations or restrictions that would be applied to protect resources. The land-use management decisions resulting from this planning effort would affect approximately 800,000 acres of Federal mineral estate managed by the CCFO, primarily located in Fresno, Monterey and San Benito counties.
Under the BLM preferred alternative, leasing with controlled surface stipulations would be allowed on approximately 683,000 acres of Federal mineral estate, and another 42,400 acres would be open to leasing with no surface occupancy. About 67,500 acres of Federal minerals would be closed to leasing in designated wilderness areas, wilderness study areas and national monuments.
The BLM predicts up to 37 new oil and gas wells to be drilled during the next 20 years on Federal minerals within the planning area. The BLM estimates that the oil and gas industry on private and public lands directly supports approximately 3,000 jobs and $623 million dollars in tax revenue within Fresno, Monterey and San Benito counties.
The proposed RMPA and final EIS fulfills the BLM’s commitment to a court order to prepare a more detailed environmental analysis of oil and gas leasing and the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing and other enhanced well stimulation techniques. The BLM will use the final EIS to issue and/or re-issue some or all of the 14 leases subject to the court’s decision.
The proposed RMPA and final EIS will be published in the Federal Register on May 10, beginning a 30-day protest period and 60-day governor’s consistency review.
Information about this planning effort, along with the agency preferred alternative and instructions for filing a protest is available online at: https://go.usa.gov/xmP8V. Formal public protests, pertaining to the analysis presented in the proposed RMPA/final EIS, will be accepted for 30 calendar days from those who have standing, following publication of the NOA in the Federal Register. Pending the outcome of the protest period and governor’s consistency review, the BLM will issue a Record of Decision.
The Central Coast Field Office jurisdiction encompasses 11 counties that stretch from the California Coast to the San Joaquin Valley, but the majority of the those lands managed by the Central Coast Field Office are located in Fresno, Monterey and San Benito counties.
Source: BLM
Photo credit: BLM
