The Kern County Board of Supervisors has approved a third round of disbursements for the $15.3 billion dollar Homelessness Housing Assistance and Prevention Grant.
Residents in Oildale, where the Tiney Oaks Transitional Shelter facility is to be built, say the location the county chose is not suitable for a homeless shelter.
Go-ahead for more oil wells in Kern County frustrates California s climate ambitions
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Oil pumping rigs and transmission lines dot the landscape along Highway 33. Kern County has approved a policy to streamline approvals, potentially allowing 2,700 oil and gas wells annually.George Rose/Getty ImagesShow MoreShow Less
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An oilfield in Bakersfield Kern County has approved new regulations that will speed up the permitting of new wells.Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle 2017Show MoreShow Less
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Oil pipelines, pumping rigs and electrical transmission lines dot the landscape along Highway 33, the “petroleum highway.”George Rose / Getty Images 2020Show MoreShow Less
A small oil boom may be dawning in the flatlands outside Bakersfield, where many are hoping for a petroleum-led economic bump for the San Joaquin Valley, but where others see California losing its will to break away from fossil fuels.
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The Kern County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a controversial ordinance Monday evening allowing the addition of more than 40,000 oil and gas wells over the next 15 years. The vote took place after supervisors heard 8 hours of public comments.
The majority of those comments were against the ordinance. Small farmers, environmental groups and residents in the county were among those opposing the ordinance.
Resident Daniel Ress said he’d read dozens of studies about the harmful effects of oil and gas drilling on people living nearby.
“My wife is pregnant and as an expectant parent I worry about increased gas and oil extraction in my community,” Ress said. “I worry about what that might do to my child both before and after they’re born.”
Plan to allow thousands of California oil wells faces vote
BRIAN MELLEY, Associated Press
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1of3FILE - This May 1, 2018 file photo shows oil pump jacks in an oil field near Taft, Calif. California s oil rich Kern County is voting on a revised plan that could permit tens of thousands of oil and gas wells in the next two decades. The plan had to be rewritten after environmental groups sued and a state appeals court found the county s permit system could threaten the region s air and water.Jae C. Hong/APShow MoreShow Less
2of3FILE - In this Jan. 16, 2015, file photo, a person walks past pump jacks operating at the Kern River Oil Field in Bakersfield, Calif. California s oil rich Kern County is voting on a revised plan that could permit tens of thousands of oil and gas wells in the next two decades. The plan had to be rewritten after environmental groups sued and a state appeals court found the county s permit system could threaten the region s air