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October 7, 2023
Sacramento, Calif. — Groups celebrated as Governor Newsom signed a bevy of climate bills including AB 1167, the Orphan Well Prevention Act authored by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, building on his momentum to take on Big Oil and make polluters pay to clean up their idle well messes.
The Orphan Well Prevention Act would require oil companies to take out full bonding to cover the clean up cost of idle and marginally-producing wells when they are transferred in ownership, helping to solve the growing orphan well crisis. Last week, Environment California released a new interactive map to show the breakdown of idle and orphan wells and the threats wells posed to groundwater in California by county, Senate and Assembly district, as well as estimated costs for clean up.
August 16, 2023
In early August, Elected Officials to Protect America and the USC Schwarzenegger Institute gathered over 50 key leaders at the Port of Long Beach where they learned about the proposed Pier Wind Project and held a California Offshore Wind roundtable conversation.
During the discussion stakeholders, elected officials, labor and others exchanged perspectives on what is needed for a future with clean offshore wind energy off the coast of California.
March 22, 2023
SBX1-2 now includes the creation of a new independent watchdog within the California Energy Commission (CEC) charged with monitoring California’s petroleum market on a daily basis to ensure market participants don’t break the law.
“We know the effects the oil industry’s price gouging had on our communities and it must stop. By creating an oversight committee, we are letting Californians know that they will not be taken advantage of at the pump anymore,” said Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan, who attended the meeting where Newsom gave a briefing on the new proposal with former Culver City Mayor Meghan Salhi-Wells of Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) California.
January 31, 2023
This winter, coastal and farming communities have been hit hard by with apocalyptic floods, landslides, downed trees, power outages and tragically the loss of life. The past year’s historic drought, heat waves and fires weakened the soil setting the stage for the worst possible scenarios from the atmospheric rivers’ onslaught. This is what the climate emergency looks like for Californians. This is why lawmakers must do everything within their power to mitigate these situations.
Yet at every step of the way oil interests continue to choose their profits over the health of people of Californians.
Senate Bill 1137, known as the safety zone law, will help protect communities from carcinogenic fossil fuel fumes.
December 14, 2022
Across the state, industrial oil operations take place just feet from homes, schools and hospitals, increasing community risks of asthma, preterm birth, cancer and premature death. Too many community members have lost their lives due to the toxins they have to breathe daily. Senate Bill (SB) 1137, a groundbreaking law that banned new oil drilling within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, hospitals and prisons would have improved the quality of life for millions living and working near oil wells.
But on December 13, the California Independent Petroleum Association announced it collected enough petition signatures to overturn SB 1137. The measure had come before the legislature previously in various forms. The difference this year was that Governor Gavin Newsom headed the fight to pass this setback safety zone law.
January 31, 2023
This winter, coastal and farming communities have been hit hard by with apocalyptic floods, landslides, downed trees, power outages and tragically the loss of life. The past year’s historic drought, heat waves and fires weakened the soil setting the stage for the worst possible scenarios from the atmospheric rivers’ onslaught. This is what the climate emergency looks like for Californians. This is why lawmakers must do everything within their power to mitigate these situations.
Yet at every step of the way oil interests continue to choose their profits over the health of people of Californians.
Senate Bill 1137, known as the safety zone law, will help protect communities from carcinogenic fossil fuel fumes.
December 7, 2022
On December 7, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced results from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM’s) wind energy auction for five leases that will go to offshore wind sites in California. This is the first ever lease sale for the Pacific region, and the first for floating offshore wind farms of this scale in America.
BOEM’s lease sale offered five lease areas covering 373,268 total acres off central and northern California. The combined lease areas of Morro Bay and Humboldt County will generate 4.6 gigawatts and power approximately 1.5 million homes. California’s overall offshore wind goal is 25 gigawatts of floating offshore wind capacity by 2045, set by the California Energy Commission.
December 7, 2022
Sacramento.
Members from Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) California gathered in Sacramento for an inaugural California Climate Emergency & Energy Security Summit at the California Energy Commission (CEC)The major focus was the buildout of offshore wind as a key component to fight the climate crisis.
A range of experts discussed how transitioning to a 100 percent clean energy will help California’s prosperity with an equitable transition from fossil fuels. The road to become energy independent will protect peoples’ pocketbooks from fossil fuel fluctuations and their health from hazardous fossil fuel fumes that also cause greenhouse gas emissions — while protecting our national security and planet.
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