BLM Issues Records of Decision for Bakersfield and Central Coast Regions, Ignoring State Health Protections and Fracking Ban

BAKERSFIELD, CA — Environmental organizations across California are condemning Trump’s Bureau of Land Management’s issuance of Records of Decision (RODs) finalizing oil and gas leasing and development plans for both the Bakersfield and Central Coast field office regions — a rushed, legally deficient move that ignores California law, bypasses the public, and offers some of the state’s most beloved public lands over to the fossil fuel industry.

The BLM issued the RODs without allowing Governor Newsom the standard 60-day Governor’s Consistency Review period required before a federal land use decision affecting California can be finalized. That review exists precisely to ensure federal actions do not conflict with state law and policy — and this decision is in direct, flagrant conflict with both.

Among the state laws the BLM has chosen to ignore: SB 1137, California’s landmark legislation establishing 3,200-foot health and safety buffer zones between new oil and gas drilling operations and sensitive receptors, including homes, schools, daycares, and hospitals; and California’s ban on fracking, which prohibits the dangerous well stimulation practice that the BLM’s plans contemplate occurring on federal lands within the state.

The BLM’s action comes after nearly half a million public comments were submitted opposing Trump’s “drill baby drill” agenda onshore and offshore across California — one of the largest public comment mobilizations in recent memory. Those voices have been summarily dismissed.

“We submitted hundreds of thousands of comments. We organized. We made our voices heard through every legal channel available to us,” said Benjamin Pitterle, Director of Advocacy and Field Operations, Los Padres ForestWatch. “The BLM’s response was to rush through final decisions before the ink was dry and before the Governor had any opportunity to weigh in. This is what regulatory capture looks like.”

The agency’s plans open more than a million acres of California’s public lands and federal mineral estate to oil and gas leasing across Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare, Ventura, Alameda, Contra Costa, Monterey, San Benito, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Merced, and San Joaquin counties — threatening communities, wildlife, drinking water, and air quality across some of the most pollution-burdened regions of the state. These are the same communities that already breathe some of the worst air in the nation.

“This insane proposal shows that the federal government is so obsessed with the idea of prolonging the United States’ fossil fuel addiction that it would open up lands within beloved state and regional parks to oil and gas leasing, as well as areas known to be completely devoid of these resources,” said Juan Pablo Galván Martínez, Land Advocacy Director for Save Mount Diablo. “This project increases economic, health and societal harm for everyone by increasing air and water pollution and making more frequent, more widespread, and more severe drought, fire, heat and floods caused by human-caused climate change even worse. We are ready to once again defend the beautiful open space of the Diablo Range and its highly diverse, unique wildlife and natural systems from nonsensical efforts to destroy it.”

This is the third time in a decade the BLM has attempted to ram through oil and gas expansion in the Bakersfield region, and the second such attempt for the Central Coast. Litigation previously halted both. 

“The Trump administration didn’t just ignore the public — it ignored the law,” said Ilonka Zlatar, a climate justice organizer with Oil and Gas Action Network. “Issuing these Records of Decision without the Governor’s Consistency Review, without regard for SB 1137, and without honoring California’s fracking ban is not just procedurally reckless — it is an affront to every Californian who has fought for cleaner air, safer communities, and protected public lands.”

The BLM’s RODs — issued under the Secretary of the Interior’s Order 3418, which directs federal agencies to maximize fossil fuel development on public lands — also rely on analyses that are more than a decade old, failing to account for the accelerating climate crisis, updated public health research on proximity to drilling, or California’s own sweeping policy changes to protect communities from fossil fuel harm.

This leasing plan threatens public lands near Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks; Carrizo Plain National Monument; the Los Padres, Sierra, and Sequoia National Forests; and state and county parks and beaches like Montaña de Oro State Park and Port Hueneme Beach Park — places that millions of Californians depend on for clean water, clean air, outdoor recreation, and refuge.

The Last Chance Alliance is calling on Governor Newsom and state agencies and departments to formally object to these decisions and assert California’s rights under federal and state law.

Members of the Last Chance Alliance and allies said the following:

“We’ll fight this with everything we’ve got,” said Cooper Kass, an attorney for the Center of Biological Diversity. “It’s a reckless decision that shows who’s really calling the shots at the White House. From Ventura to the Bay Area, California’s public lands have always been a refuge for people and wildlife. We’ve got to protect these places and our communities from a government hellbent on lining this toxic industry’s pockets.”

“BLM’s decision to rush this process shows just how much Trump and the fossil fuel industry are walking in lockstep to the detriment of our public lands and environment,” said Nicole Ghio, California Director at Food & Water Watch. “Californians have made it abundantly clear that we don’t want drilling on our public lands and it’s despicable that the Trump Administration is so eager to disregard anyone who dares stand up to it.”

“California leaders won’t meet the people’s climate goals if they allow the Trump administration to vastly expand oil and gas operations on beloved public lands in already burdened areas,” said Miguel Miguel, Director of Sierra Club California. “Affordability goals won’t fare any better. These corporate giveaways are doing nothing to reduce energy prices. They block access to public lands, harm wildlife, destroy cultural resources and leave pollution in the air and water of communities who later often pick up the tab for the mess.”

“By ramping up the timeline the BLM is defying procedures that protect our public lands. America’s public lands are owned by We the People. A right protected by Congress. We the People will not see the profits from the oil and gas industry as we continue to be subjected to price volatility at the gas pump. We will see the devastation and destruction to the California environment. Once the drilling starts those areas will be lost to everyone,” said Ramona Cornell du Houx, Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) Communications Director. “Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) will do everything within our power to stop this apparent land grab for the oil and gas industry.” 

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LCA LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We acknowledge that Bakersfield is the traditional home of the Kitanemuk people of the Tejon Tribe. Part of our commitment to decolonizing ourselves, our language, and our organizations is a commitment to learning and better understanding the history of Indigenous Peoples of so-called California, including the history of contact, colonization and the extraction of resources from Indigenous lands which has been part of the continuation of modern colonization.