To stop Trump fracking plans, California turns to the courts
SACRAMENTO >> California took legal action Friday to block the Trump administration’s plans to open federal lands in California to oil and gas drilling, including the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing.
The federal lawsuit announced by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra comes after President Donald Trump’s administration announced details of its plan to open more than a million acres of public and private land in California to fracking, ending a five-year moratorium on leasing federal land in California to oil and gas developers. Plans for the expansion of drilling in the state were recently approved by the Bureau of Land Management.
“BLM’s decision to advance this half-baked proposal isn’t just misguided, it’s downright dangerous,”
Becerra said in a statement released Friday morning. “The risks to both people and the environment associated with fracking are simply too high to ignore. But that’s essentially what BLM is doing. We won’t ignore the facts and science when it comes to protecting our people, economy, and environment, and we’re taking the Trump administration to court to prove it.”
The lawsuit alleges that the BLM’s final environmental impact statement violates the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act because it fails to consider the danger posed to people who might live near the oil and gas wells.
Along with the attorney general, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Trump administration include Gov. Gavin Newsom, the California Air Resources Board, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the California Department of Water Resources.
Environmental groups filed a similar lawsuit in a Los Angeles federal court earlier this week, citing the threat to public health and potential damage to recreational areas caused by fracking.
In an attempt to undercut the president’s plan, Newsom and the state Legislature put in place a new law last year prohibiting oil pipelines or other essential infrastructure from crossing state lands.
Trump’s plan targets public and private land spread across eight counties in Central California: eastern Fresno, western Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura. Some of the parcels outlined in the plan are next to Los Padres National Forest, Carrizo Plain National Monument and the Wind Wolves Preserve.