CA Oil, Gas, Mineral Royalty Owners Join Pacific Legal Foundation to Announce Federal Challenge to New York Anti Oil and Natural Gas Policy

NARO-California, of the National Association of Royalty Owners, together with Pacific Legal Foundation announced in January their federal lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 1137, the 3,200-foot oil setback mandate that they argue violates the constitutional rights of oil and gas mineral and royalty owners.

According to NARO-CA and Pacific Legal Foundation, SB 1137 amounts to an uncompensated taking of private property in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution. 

The Globe reported in 2022 on Senate Bill 1137, gut-and-amend legislation by Democrat Senators Lena Gonzalez and Monique Limón, to require 3,200-foot mandatory setbacks around California oil and gas wells:

Really disconcerting is “the bill would authorize the State Air Resources Board, and the State Water Resources Control Board to prescribe, adopt, and enforce any emergency regulations as necessary to implement, administer, and enforce these duties.”

Why now when oil production has responsibly occurred in Los Angeles County and around the state for more than 100 years?

In the City of Los Angeles:

• there are 26 oil and gas fields that intersect city boundaries, and 5,229 oil and gas wells, according to the CA DOGGR and verified by the City’s Petroleum Administrator.
• There are approximately 819 active, 296 idle, 3,181 plugged, and 933 buried wells.
• There are oil and gas facilities in nearly every section of the 503 square miles of the City.
• The City of Los Angeles produces 2% of California’s total production.

In 1988, the state of California only imported about 4.5% of all the oil that we consumed in our state. By 2020 California was importing over 70% of our oil from foreign sources.

Now, NARO-CA, the California chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners, is joining with Pacific Legal Foundation once again in a new federal lawsuit by New York mineral owners challenging the state’s ban on advanced oil and natural gas technologies as an unconstitutional taking of mineral rights under the Fifth Amendment.

John Whipkey, President of NARO East, said: “New York’s prohibition on modern day extraction of oil and gas is harmful to the property owners there, including farmers, small business owners and retirees. The negative economic impact of the prohibition is self-evident. We appreciate the efforts of NARO-CA and PLF to equip us to stand up for our Constitutionally-protected property rights.”

NARO CA reports:

Thomas Woodward and Madison Woodward III, who are father and son and also members of NARO East, a chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners representing New York mineral owners, purchased property in Delaware County, New York in 2011 after Madison Woodward III researched its potential for natural gas production from the Utica and Marcellus shale formations. In 2019, they sold the surface rights but retained the mineral rights. New York, which banned high-volume hydraulic fracturing in 2015 via an administrative agency decision, later codified it into law and expanded it to include additional advanced technologies in 2020, has prevented them from developing those mineral rights. The state has expanded its oil and natural gas technology bans in 2020 and 2024.

“New York can choose to leave its energy in the ground, and rely on neighboring states for resources, but it cannot compel landowners to bear that burden without just compensation,” said Tyler Fry, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, which represents the Woodwards free of charge. “New Yorkers, like all property owners across the country, have the right to use their property and the natural resources on their land to responsibly create energy, advance opportunity, and promote an abundant future for the next generation. Those goals should not be destroyed overnight by government fiat.”

A recent Heritage Foundation study of the Twin Tiers region — comparing Delaware County and six other southern New York counties to their Pennsylvania counterparts — found that New York’s ban has cost residents roughly $11,000 per person or $27,000 per household in lost economic growth. Pennsylvania counties above the Marcellus Shale have seen higher GDP per capita, more jobs, and rising incomes while New York’s side has stagnated.

“Family farms are disappearing in New York,” stated David Johnson, a fourth generation farmer in Broome County. “The average age of a farmer is sixty-six. Farm kids don’t want to deal with the financial struggles and are leaving agriculture.”

Ed Hazard, President of NARO-CA, said: “Royalty owners in New York are living the same nightmare California royalty owners face with SB 1137. Dishonest lawfare is being used to advance a politically motivated aim to eliminate oil and natural gas production. This state government overreach removes our fundamental liberties and property rights which becomes a regulatory taking.”

The mission of NARO is to encourage and promote exploration and production of minerals, oil and gas in the United States while preserving, protecting, advancing and representing the interests and rights of mineral and royalty owners through education, advocacy and assistance to our members, to NARO chapter organizations, to government bodies and to the public.

People are invited to learn more about NARO-CA by visiting NARO-CA.org.