This protest action took place just as an analysis by Consumer Watchdog and the Fractracker Alliance revealed that the state’s approvals for permits to fix or deepen existing oil wells skyrocketed from last in the second quarter by some 124%. Meanwhile, second quarter permit approvals for oil drilling pushed the overall number since Newsom came to office to 11,669.

Those at the direct-action event called on Crowfoot and Newsom to end what they called CalGEM’s “long history of negligence” including the following:

• Stop “snapshot inspection quotas that CalGEM Whistleblowers say “only drive up numbers on a bar chart and make management look good.”
• Stop all “remote witnessing” of thousands of idle and decades-old toxic well sites and start “robust, in person site inspections.”
• Stop permitting toxic wells within 3200 feet of homes, schools, businesses, hospitals and other sensitive areas.
• Immediately roll out comprehensive 3200-foot setbacks on new and existing oil and gas well sites.