Oil Driller Accountability Bills Pass Appropriations, Move To Assembly Floor, Says Consumer Watchdog

SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Two bills holding oil drillers accountable for drilling within 3200 feet of a community passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee today by a vote of 11 - 4 and go the Assembly floor.

Assembly Bill 3155 (Friedman) creates new financial liability for oil producers for harm from community oil drilling. AB 2716 (Bryan) requires committee drillers to pay a $10,000 per day fine for any well that produces less than 15 barrels of oil per day.

64 environmental, consumer and public interest support AB 3155 and AB 2716. AB 3155 is sponsored by Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment. Consumer Watchdog is also the sponsor of AB 2716. 

"Oil drillers will face accountability for reckless drilling one way or another," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. "If they want to challenge the legislature's limit on new community drilling permits at the ballot box, they will face greater accountability measures for all their oil wells. These bills deliver the message that oil drillers cannot evade accountability for the harms the cause."

Oil drillers have put a referendum of the ballot challenging SB 1137 (Gonzalez) that ends new wells permits within a half mile of a community. 

"If oil and gas companies are going to continue to endanger the health of California residents, it is only fair they pay the costs when those residents get sick," the 64 groups wrote. "We need AB 3155 to protect our most vulnerable residents from our most powerful polluters. We believe oil companies should be held accountable for the health harms they cause."

"We believe that it is unacceptable to allow oil drillers to continue to run these low production wells with no economic benefit while the people in nearby communities pay with their health," the groups wrote about AB 2716. "This legislation holds them accountable."

More than 2.7 million Californians live within 3,200 feet of an existing operational oil or gas well and that number will continue to increase with the addition of new wells. 

California is home to 101,000 actively producing, idle, and newly permitted wells that have not yet become operational, according to FracTracker Alliance. Out of that number, 26,000 are located within the 3,200-foot health protective zone where millions of people live.

The scientific evidence shows that a direct link exists between drilling, pre-term births, as well as respiratory illnesses and cancer.

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog