FAQ Fact Sheet

What are fossil fuels?

Coal, oil, and “natural” gas are all considered fossil fuels because they come from fossilized plant and animal remains that decayed millions of years ago. These are rich in carbon content and can be harnessed as an energy source. We have used up a lot of the conventional, easily accessible sources of fossil fuels so oil companies have had to find new, more extreme, ways to drill for fossil fuels that are harder to access. Fracking and cyclic steam injection are examples of extreme extraction methods that have become popular in California. These methods are expensive, require higher concentrations of dangerous chemicals, and are highly polluting. Oil drilled in California is worse for the climate than oil drilled almost anywhere else in the world. Governor Newsom has said he will ban fracking by 2024, but he has not addressed the similarly dangerous method of cyclic steam injection.

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What are the public health risks of oil production?

In California, two new studies from Stanford and Berkeley released this year report that living near oil and gas wells in California has significant adverse impacts on pregnant mothers and newborn babies. One of these studies found that pregnant women in rural California who lived near active oil and gas wells are 40% more likely to give birth to low birthweight babies. Another found that pregnant women living near oil and gas wells in California face a high risk of preterm birth, the leading cause of infant death in the United States. Their research shows that risks were highest for Hispanic and African American women. Studies link fracking and oil extraction to a variety of air pollution problems, including increased smog levels. During the pandemic, researchers have found increased rates of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases in places with higher air pollution.

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How do oil permits get approved?

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When oil companies want to drill new oil wells or build new oil infrastructure, they must apply for permits from specific government agencies that are supposed to regulate their operation and make sure they are abiding by the law. Governor Newsom and the officials he appoints to represent his administration are ultimately the people responsible for approving new oil wells. Historically, this permitting process has been very flawed. There is often little attempt made to get community input or community decision-making and when communities are given a chance to voice their opposition, their voices are marginalized or ignored. In practice, these agencies are often run by people with close ties to the oil industry and will rubber-stamp permits for oil companies without doing adequate analysis of the harmful impacts on nearby communities, the climate, or the local environment.

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CalGEM is one of the main agencies that oil companies must get approval from when they want to frack or drill, and Governor Newsom and his administration are allowed to tell this agency what to do. Newsom has the authority to begin phasing out fossil fuel production and tell these agencies to stop issuing permits. He pledged to oppose fracking but he still hasn’t told his agencies to stop permitting new fracking wells. The oil industry (BP, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, etc.) is continually being given permission to dig and drill because they have cozy relationships with the agencies that are supposed to regulate their behavior. Even when the Governor himself acknowledges we are living through a climate crisis, he has approved oil industry permits. The environmental and public safety impacts of oil and gas extractions are well defined and established. The public needs to call on Newsom to stand against Big Oil and radically shift the way California produces energy.

 

Where does oil drilling happen?

In California, a majority of oil drilling takes place in San Joaquin Valley and Kern County, the southernmost region of the Central Valley. Seven million Californians, disproportionately Black and Brown Californians, currently live within a mile of oil and gas wells. Low-income communities and communities of color live closer to wells and are exposed to greater amounts of air and water pollution. They are also more likely to bear the brunt of the negative health consequences associated with living near fossil fuel infrastructure. Geographic evidence reveals that disposal wells for fracking wastewater are disproportionately located in lower-income, rural communities (10).

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Despite its green credentials, here in California, there are currently no rules about how close oil operations can be to homes, schools, parks, etc.

Legislators have consistently failed to pass bills that would protect communities with strong setback distances or buffer zones between where oil drilling happens and where people live, work, and play. In 2020 and 2021, just a handful of oil-backed state senators killed two bills that would have ensured crucial protections.

However, in late 2021, Governor Newsom finally announced a proposed rule that would introduce 3200 ft setbacks between residential areas and all new oil wells. This is an important start, but it is not enough. To protect communities from the harms of existing oil production today, the rule must be strengthened to include both new AND existing oil wells.

 

How does fossil fuel extraction drive climate change?

75% of all greenhouse gas emissions come from extracting and burning fossil fuels. This is because the crude oil extracted from fields across the world is refined into petroleum products, including gasoline and diesel. When these products are refined and burned to produce energy, they also release greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere. 

The release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere traps heat and results in rising global temperatures which, in turn, leads to breakdowns in our climate system. Fracked oil requires a lot of energy to produce and releases methane, which is even more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. 

Burning fossil fuels drives the climate crisis which in turn makes disasters like wildfires and hurricanes more frequent and more intense. Increased extreme weather, rising sea level, and increased wildfires are all consequences of climate change (3). Californians have already experienced the brutal consequences of out-of-control wildfires and heatwaves.

There is currently five times more coal, oil, and gas in the world’s known fossil fuel reserves than we can burn and maintain a relatively stable climate. To avoid the worst consequences of climate collapse, 80% of fossil fuels need to stay in the ground, unburned. That means wealthy countries like the USA need to reduce oil production first and fastest, cutting production at least in half by 2030 and stopping any new fossil fuel projects right now. As a politically progressive state but also one of the largest oil-producing states in the USA, California is uniquely well-positioned to take the lead and end all fossil fuel production on a timeline aligned with climate science and climate justice.

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