After Spending $61 Million in a Failed Effort to Deceive Voters,
Big Oil Withdraws Referendum in Defeat
Coalition Led by Neighborhood Activists and
Environmental Justice Communities Celebrates Winning Health and
Safety Laws Protecting Californians from Toxic Oil Drilling
SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 27,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Campaign for a
Safe and Healthy California (CSHC) announced that despite opponents
spending nearly $61 million on
deceitful efforts to repeal a California law (SB 1137) that protects
neighborhoods from toxic drilling, Big Oil has reversed course and
forfeited their deceitful ballot measure from the November ballot
in a stunning defeat.
"Big Oil spent tens of millions of dollars trying to fool
voters, using the profits made at the expense of community health,
but it was no match for the groundswell of people power and
community support we were able to unite all across California," said Darryl Molina Sarmiento, CSHC Steering Committee
Member and Executive Director of Communities for a Better
Environment. "Though Big Oil is crawling back in defeat on this
issue, we know this won't be the last David vs. Goliath fight we
win against them."
By initially putting a deceptive measure on the ballot, Big Oil
tried to repeal a law (SB 1137) that would make existing oil and
gas wells safer by meeting tighter health and environmental
requirements within 3,200 feet of neighborhoods, schools, daycare
centers and healthcare facilities, and keeping new wells from being
built in these areas.
"This campaign has been about giving voice to the people living
in communities most affected by Big Oil's indifference to public
health, where drilling has taken place in their backyards and in
the places where they work, play and go to school. This was a
contest between industry profits and public health, and our bold
campaign won. Because of this broad and powerful coalition of
community organizers, activists, elected officials, health workers,
philanthropies and more, Big Oil knew it would be unable to
overturn a 2022 California law passed by a bipartisan legislature,
and has withdrawn. Time to move ahead, and connect public health
with the amazing growth industry of renewable energy in
California," added
philanthropist Wendy Schmidt,
the top funder of the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy
California.
The withdrawal of the referendum means the health and safety law
is once again in effect immediately. Oil and gas companies may no
longer drill new wells or redrill existing wells within the health
buffer, and will need to comply with pollution control and safety
measures designed to reduce the harm from existing wells.
Californians will benefit immediately from the law's protections.
For example, Signal Hill Petroleum, which contributed $3.2 million dollars to the campaign to overturn
the law, will be unable to proceed with its dangerous proposal to
drill dozens of new wells within the health buffer.
Nearly 30,000 oil and gas wells in California sit within 3,200 feet of homes,
schools, hospitals and other public areas, exposing nearly 3
million people, disproportionately communities of color, to
emissions that can cause birth defects, respiratory illnesses and
cancer. An independent scientific advisory panel in
2021 advised California
officials that a 3,200-foot setback between oil wells and sensitive
receptors is the minimum distance to protect public
health.
The Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California, organized as
CAvsBigOil.com, began with community leaders standing up to toxic
oil drilling in their neighborhoods and has grown to include more
than 400 organizations, labor unions, community and faith leaders,
two Governors of California,
public health groups, and environmental justice leaders from across
California, working to hold oil
companies accountable for creating a public health crisis,
especially for communities of color.
For more information about our campaign, please visit our
website at: www.CAvsBigOil.com
Paid for by Campaign for a Safe and Healthy
California, sponsored by nonprofit environmental and health
organizations. Committee Top Funders: Advocacy Action Fund, Inc.,
Wendy Schmidt, Federated Indians of
Graton Rancheria.
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SOURCE Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California