California's oil industry withdrew a proposed ballot measure that would have asked voters to overturn a 2022 set back law mandating buffer zones in neighborhoods. Under the law, oil and gas wells could not be within 3,200 feet of homes and schools.
Environmentalists say this decision is a win and will clear the way for a law to ban new drilling and put safety restrictions on existing wells in communities.
Oil industry groups say the setback law will eliminate jobs, drive up gas prices and increase California's dependence on imported oil. After spending 20 million dollars gathering signatures for the ballot measure, the oil industry will try to challenge the law in court instead.
The state's setback rules will now take effect. Operators of existing wells within the buffer zones must develop safety plans by 2025 and implement them by 2027.
The health risks from oil operations have been at the center of a decades-long effort to protect families, schoolchildren and the elderly from the impacts of drilling.
More than two-and-half million Californians live within 3,200 feet of an oil or gas well. Those neighborhoods are predominantly low income -- nearly 70 percent non-white -- disproportionately saddling communities of color with decades of health impacts.
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After SB 1137 was signed into law, the oil industry launched a campaign -- which they called "Stop The Energy Shutdown" -- to put the law before voters on the November ballot, a move that suspended its implementation. New permits for working on existing leaking or unproductive wells in those areas reportedly ramped up while the new rules were in limbo.
