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Bloomberg
California intensified its battle against fossil fuels by seeking independent reviews of all pending hydraulic fracturing permits and halting approvals of a key production technique in an area that has pumped crude for more than a century.
Governor Gavin Newsom ordered regulators to assess the safety of high-pressure steamflooding, a production process that has been linked to recent oil leaks in Kern County, the state’s Department of Conservation said. The state is also requesting third-party scientific reviews of any pending applications for fracking, as well as looking for ways to toughen regulations to protect residents near oil and natural gas well sites.
It’s the latest in a series of actions or threats against unconventional oil and gas production. Democratic presidential contenders Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have promised to ban fracking if elected. The UK government halted new fracking wells in England earlier this month on concerns about earthquakes.
Newsom, a San Francisco Democrat in his first term as governor, has been stepping up pressure on oil and natural gas producers through a series of initiatives such as denying permits and drilling leases on land that is or once was protected by federal authorities.
California Resources Corp, the state’s largest oil producer, tumbled as much as 32% on the news and its bonds dropped to just 25 cents on the dollar, the lowest since 2016.
The company predicted no “significant effect†on its output because the type of steamflooding it employs is exempt from the ban, according to
an email.