Bakersfield-based oil producer Aera Energy LLC filed a lawsuit this week that makes it at least the fourth entity attempting to overturn the Newsom administration’s de-facto ban on the controversial oil field technique known as fracking.
Wednesday’s suit in Kern County Superior Court cited the state’s denial of 49 fracking permit applications since early July in western Kern’s North and South Belridge oil fields. It said regulators did not cite any technical deficiencies but instead stated permission was withheld out of concern for “public health and safety and environmental quality, including (the) reduction and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.”
Filed on Aera’s behalf by Los Angeles law firm Alston & Bird LLP, the lawsuit adds to the legal firepower involved in a high-stakes battle between California’s Kern-centric oil industry and an administration that has taken several steps to limit oil field activity under pressure from environmental groups trying to halt in-state petroleum production.
In mid-September, the county Board of Supervisors became the first to file a suit aimed at ending Gov. Gavin Newsom’s apparent policy of rejecting fracking permits on environmental grounds. The trade group Western States Petroleum Association followed suit a month later, and Chevron filed its own lawsuit March 18.
Aera’s petition for writ of mandamus and complaint for damages and declaratory relief names Newsom as a defendant, along with the California Department of Conservation, the agency’s Geologic Energy Management Division and State Oil and Gas Supervisor Uduak-Joe Ntuk.
“Aera is filing because we believe that the government’s actions have unlawfully and unconstitutionally impacted our specific assets,” the company said Thursday in an emailed statement. “Although the subject, CalGEM’s de facto moratorium on well stimulation, may tap into the same issues as other litigation, no one can seek damages relative to Aera assets but us.”
Representatives of the defendants were away from the office on holiday Thursday and did not respond to requests for comment.
Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing, forces water, sand and sometimes toxic chemicals underground to open petroleum reservoirs. Environmental groups contend it puts groundwater and air quality at risk.
Seven years after California passed its first law specific to fracking, Newsom called on the state Legislature in 2020 to ban fracking. But after a bill attempting to do so failed, the governor initiated a rule-making process intended to bar the technique by Jan. 1, 2024.
Starting in July, CalGEM began denying fracking permit applications based not on technical faults but concern for health, safety and the environment.
The various lawsuits challenging the application rejections allege Newsom had no authority to institute the de-facto ban, and that the governor himself has acknowledged as much in statements to the news media.
“Aera shares the state’s sense of urgency to address climate change and supports a strategic plan based on facts and science that delivers the energy needed by Californians while helping the state secure its place as a climate leader,” Wednesday’s complaint said. “But eliminating (fracking) operations through a unilaterally imposed ban will not make Californians safer and will not address climate change. Oil products will continue to play a vital role in California for decades to come.”
Read More:Aera challenges governor’s fracking ban | News
2022-04-01 00:08:00
