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Gavin Newsom

Gov. Newsom Executive Action to Ban Fracking by 2024 and End Oil Extraction by 2045

‘He just pissed off over 150,000 voters who are in the industry… signaled to them that he doesn’t want them to have a job’

By Evan Symon, April 24, 2021 2:06 am

Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Friday that he will be banning all new fracking permits in California by 2024 by using his executive authority and added that he will look into halting all oil extraction in the state by 2045.

Governor Newsom’s announcement came a week after a California Senate Committee voted down SB 467, a bill that would have stopped fracking in the state by 2027. Many felt the bill had gone too far in the bans, including new well drilling nearby populated areas, and lost much support after labor unions opposed the bill.

While fracking has often come up for a ban, including another total ban on the practice in 2014 nearly making it into law in the legislature, the need for local oil and pressure from unions and rural legislators from both parties had kept it at bay.

This all changed Friday with Newsom’s executive action. Specifically, Newsom’s action will begin the ban in 2024 under the California Department of Conservation’s Geologic Energy Management (CalGEM) Division, giving them 3 years to craft the specified mandate. Meanwhile, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is to evaluate and come up with a plan on how to end all oil drilling in the state by 2045. Foreseeing opposition to such a plan, Newsom said that his administration will figure out what to do about projected job loss and local economic loss caused by the ban, with CARB to find out what exactly what an oil extraction ban will do to the state economically and environmentally, as well as what health benefits there are.

While only 83 fracking permits were issued last year, compared with 220 being issued in 2016, the oil and gas industry is still very large in California. Currently the industry employs roughly 152,000 people in the state, generating $152.3 billion in economic output each year.

Newsom has previously issued many executive decisions on environmental matters, such as his executive order last year banning the sale of all gas powered cars in the state by 2035, but his announcement on Friday has proven to be his farthest reaching one yet in his term as Governor.

“The climate crisis is real, and we continue to see the signs every day,” said Governor Newsom in a statement on Friday. “As we move to swiftly decarbonize our transportation sector and create a healthier future for our children, I’ve made it clear I don’t see a role for fracking in that future and similarly, believe that California needs to move beyond oil.”

Praise from environmentalists, outrage from oil and gas industry

Many environmental groups and and many lawmakers applauded the Governor’s decision on Friday, specifically praising his direct action in helping fight climate change.

“Governor Newsom’s ban on fracking and announcement to phase out of oil extraction is the consistent leadership our state needs if we stand a chance of preventing major climate catastrophe,” noted California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV) CEO Mary Creasman on Friday. “As wildfire season approaches, this is the critical next step that California must take in addressing the driving cause of the climate crisis head on–our dependence on oil and gas.”

However, the oil and gas industry, many unions, and several lawmakers blasted his announcement on Friday, noting not only the economic harm and the need Californians have for cheaper oil and gas, but also pointing out how this would only lead to more oil importation from countries with even worse environmental records.

Senator Shannon Grove. (Photo: Kevin Sanders for California Globe)

“California’s oil and gas consumption has only been reduced by a miniscule amount in over 30 years. For the Governor to destroy these good paying jobs and import oil from countries with abysmal human rights and environmental records is completely irresponsible,” said Senator Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) in a statement on Friday.

Others noted that this may ultimately backfire on Newsom as well.

“He just pissed off over 150,000 voters who are in the industry. He just signaled to them that he doesn’t want them to have a job,” Tim Guthrie, who helps organize wildcat oil drillers in several states, told the Globe. “That’s not mentioning all the periphery  jobs surrounding the industry who rely on it.”

“And, when you take a look at it, these industry workers are in rural areas like Kern County or out in the desert, or in urban areas such as Los Angeles, or offshore. But the fact of the matter is this is a giant industry, that pumps in billions into California, and helps keep gas prices as low as they are in the state right now. Newsom wants to dismantle all of that.”

“He just made a long list of enemies and pissed off voters in a year with a recall election. All you have to do is remind them what Newsom is trying to do the the industry in California, and suddenly he has a lot to worry about. Especially if the next Governor nixes everything he did.”

More details on the fracking ban and 2045 oil extraction ban are expected in the coming weeks.

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24 thoughts on “Gov. Newsom Executive Action to Ban Fracking by 2024 and End Oil Extraction by 2045

  1. Newsom is determined to grow the crowd of pitchfork-and-torch-carrying Californians who demand his recall.

  2. NO PUNK NEWSOM! THE SO CALLED CLIMATE CRISIS IS NOT REAL!!!!! MANMADE CLIMATE CHANGE, CLIMATE CRISIS, GLOBAL WARMING OR WHATEVER THE ENVIRONMENTAL GLOBAL WHINING NUT JOBS ARE CALLING IT THIS WEEK IS THE BIGGEST BS HOAX THE WORLD HAS SEEN! HAVE YOU HEARD THE LATEST? JOHN KERRY SAYS WE NEED TO ELIMINATE ALL CO2 IN THE ATMOSPHERE! WE NEED CO2 FOR PLANTS AND TREES WHICH IN TURN GIVE THE ATMOSPHERE OXYGEN, SOMETHING WE USED TO TEACH IN OUR SCHOOLS. CO2 IS NOT A POLLUTANT. WE EXHALE CO2 WITH EVERY BREATH. I HAVE AN IDEA, WHY DON’T ALL THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS STOP EXHALING. BY DOING SO THAT WOULD CUT DOWN ON THIS EVIL “GREENHOUSE GAS” ! STOP GLOBAL WHINING!

  3. If this guy keeps making unforced errors, you won’t be needing many pitchfork-and-torch-carrying Californians. Ordinary people will demand recall.

    1. Agree with you, Raymond. And just go back over Katy Grimes list of Newsom’s Nonsense if you or anyone you know needs a motivating refresher to make the argument about the necessity of the Recall:
      “Voters Remember CA Gov Gavin Newsom’s Troubles Began Before the COVID Lockdown, Part IV”
      https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/voters-remember-ca-gov-gavin-newsoms-troubles-began-before-covic-lockdown-part-iv/
      Parts I, II, and III are linked there.

  4. IMPUNITY: Exemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action.
    Ask why these pols behave this way! My answer is that they have control of the voting software and they can do as they are “paid” to do by their contributors. They do not have to give a tinkers damn about the wishes of the voters.
    Think death penalty.
    OPINION: The fly in the ointment is in the control of the voting software!!!

    1. Tomorrow: Maybe he is making these pronouncements because the only supporters he has left are the ones who want this stuff, or think they want it. You know, the rather small percentage of hard-core completely deluded environmentalists. Everyone else in this state is mad as hell because they have been directly affected by his nonsense and they are feeling the pain. Is he playing to his small percentage base now, which I’m guessing has shrunk considerably since he was installed?

  5. Is this even legal? He issues an order that doesn’t take place for 3 years in one case and 24 years in the other. How can that be an emergency that could not be resolved by the Legislature. Is it just that if the legislature does something he doesn’t like he can over rule it? Did he acquire supreme ruler powers? He assumes he does. But is his assumption sufficient to make laws as he sees fit? AH.

  6. Dutiful serfs
    kiss the chemical industry, paint companies, cosmetics, plastic industries bye bye…Millions of jobs gone, national security kaput…..

  7. Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; (15 December 37 – 9 June 68 AD) was the fifth Roman emperor, ruling from 54 to 68. His infamous reign is usually associated with tyranny, extravagance, and debauchery.

    Sound familiar? (In all fairness, Nero didn’t have access to the French Laundry restaurant).

  8. Doesn’t anyone remember how Gavin gave out a record number of fracking permits and then went “whoops?”
    https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-gavin-newsom-oil-fracking-20190712-story.html

    He could have cancelled the permits, but he didn’t. Gavin gets it both ways: he gets the pay-to-play kickbacks as well as the fauxgressive kudos. As. Lt. Governor, Gavin could have advocated for the practice followed in other states of putting extraction revenues into a permanent endowment for the University System, but he didn’t. As Lt. Governor, Gavin could have influenced resource extraction policies as a member of the State Lands Commission, but he not only increased the amount of resources extracted, he expanded them to include rare earths – which is a highly toxic process. Gavin is a hypocrite, a monster, and a fraud. He is a tool of organized crime.

    1. YES, I do remember that. He’s a phony. But we knew that, didn’t we? 🙂
      P.S. As I recall Jerry Brown did the same thing. Put on an environmentalist mask but knew the state needed the fracking and the $$$$$$ that came from it, so permits were approved under the radar.
      The Brown family wealth comes from oil. Newsom has similar oil connections that propped him up.

  9. Impractical. Banning oil is foolish. How are you going to power the cars and generate electricity for everything if you’re only relying on renewable energy? Gas prices are going to increase. Also I don’t know why it has to fall on California. Why not China and India. All the halted oil production is going to hurt consumers.

  10. Oopsie… another faux pas. Just got busted for informally (no written order, only verbal and text?) placing Natl Guard
    F-15 on standby if the natives got restless when he locked down the state and/or to buzz protests over George Floyd. PRAY for our state and each other, all is being revealed.

  11. How can an ostensibly lame-duck Governor, facing recall no less, issue an edict of this magnitude and have it stick???
    Is California a monarchy now???

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