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This Jan. 16, 2015, file photo shows pumpjacks operating at the Kern River Oil Field in Bakersfield, Calif. | Jae C. Hong, File/AP
California s fossil fuel expansion plan to test Newsom s clean energy record
SACRAMENTO Kern County officials approved a plan that could increase the number of oil wells in California by a staggering 40 percent or more over the next 15 years a shift that is unfolding even as Gov. Gavin Newsom works to burnish his clean energy credentials.
Experts and insiders expect the Newsom administration will honor the local decision by signing off on many of the drilling applications, which could undermine the governor s climate-friendly image and damage his relationship with environmentalists.
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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
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