Environmental justice advocates took to Stockdale Highway on Wednesday to protest California oil well inspection practices they say highlight the need for a statewide buffer zone separating new and existing wells from homes and other sensitive sites.
Eight representatives of at least two different activist organizations stood in the midday heat and held banners outside what turned out to have been the wrong location — former offices of state regulatory agency the California Geologic Energy Management Division, which has since moved its Bakersfield operations to River Run Boulevard.
Coinciding with similar messaging by other protesters Wednesday in Sacramento, the group called the attention of drivers-by to a recent news report that CalGEM inspectors are conducting well inspections remotely and, allegedly, imposing a quota system that effectively prioritizes oversight of wells in isolated parts of western Kern at the expense of installations closer to residential areas.
