Los Padres ForestWatch
By the Los Padres ForestWatch
The Bureau of Land Management late Wednesday ordered an oil company to permanently close and remove 11 long-dormant oil wells inside the Carrizo Plain National Monument, a unique landscape in central California famous for its vibrant springtime wildflower displays and rare wildlife.
The order was part of a legal agreement signed by the BLM and conservation groups one year ago. The agreement resolved a 2020 lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s approval of a new oil well and pipeline in the national monument.
“This order is a giant step toward restoring the landscape in Carrizo Plain National Monument,” said ForestWatch Executive Director Jeff Kuyper. “It forges a new era of conservation for this treasured place and will protect wildlife, nearby communities, and our climate from ongoing pollution. We hope the work is completed as soon as possible.”
The order requires the oil company, E&B Natural Resources of Bakersfield, to plug and abandon 11 oil wells that have not produced oil in decades. It also calls for reclamation of the oil pads and more than 3 miles of access roads, returning those areas to natural conditions, as well as removing pipelines, powerlines and other infrastructure. The work must be completed by 2028.
“This is a place for wildflowers, California condors and kit foxes, not oil wells,” said Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s wonderful to see the fossil fuel era coming to an end here, which will benefit all the rare plants and animals of this stunning landscape. Now we need to phaseout fossil fuel extraction throughout California and the country to have any hope of leaving a livable planet for future generations.”
In 2020 Los Padres ForestWatch and the Center for Biological Diversity sued the BLM after the agency approved a permit for a new well and pipeline.
The lawsuit said the proposed fossil fuel extraction would harm threatened and endangered wildlife and mar scenic views, violating the monument’s resource-management plan, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. It was the first new oil well approved in Carrizo Plain National Monument since it was established in 2001.
The lawsuit also said the BLM had failed to protect monument resources in managing oil drilling in the national monument, including promptly capping and remediating old wells and facilities that have not produced oil in decades.
The well sites are in the Caliente Mountains inside the western boundary of Carrizo Plain National Monument. The area is home to several protected species, including threatened San Joaquin antelope squirrels, endangered San Joaquin kit foxes, and an endangered flowering plant called the Kern mallow.
About the Carrizo Plain
The Carrizo Plain National Monument is a vast expanse of golden grasslands and stark ridges known for their springtime wildflower displays. Often referred to as “California’s Serengeti,” it is one of the last undeveloped remnants of the southern San Joaquin Valley ecosystem.
The Carrizo Plain is critical for the long-term conservation of this dwindling ecosystem. It links these lands to other high-value habitat areas like the Los Padres National Forest, Salinas Valley, Cuyama Valley, and Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge in western Kern County.
Honoring the area’s high biodiversity, limited human impacts and rare geological and cultural features, President Clinton declared the Carrizo Plain a national monument in 2001. It includes more than 206,000 acres of public lands ― perhaps the largest native grassland remaining in all of California.
Los Padres ForestWatch is a local nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting wildlife, wilderness landscapes, watersheds, and outdoor recreation opportunities throughout the Los Padres National Forest and the adjacent Carrizo Plain National Monument.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Wonderful!
Now lets get oil out of the rest of our habitats.
Great place. You can see the San Andres fault and there are tons of wildflowers during spring. Several years ago, I went to the park and thought I saw a body of water in the distance. I drove toward it and it turned out to be a huge field of lupins. I entered at Highway 58, drove through the park and exited at 166.
Stop oil consumption – then you can work on stopping production
Yes! But stopping production will certainly stop consumption, don’t you think?
sopping production before stopping production will create tons of ill feeling and backlash. Better to do it and keep people on your side.
THANK YOU, Los Padres Forest Watch and Center for Biological Diversity, for the hard work that you did on behalf of us all!
Backlash?
We are a long long way from being able to end fossil fuel production
We have great little farms nearby, but they don’t produce enough food for the greater Santa Barbara area. Even those local farms usually use some form of combustion engine power. Stopping fossil fuel production will stop most food production and stop most transportation.
We do not have enough solar, wind etc right now to power the electrical grid. Stopping fossil fuel production will stop 42% of CA electricity production (in 2022 CA generated 42% of its electricity from natural gas)
Santa Barbara County consumes 2,733,000,000 kWh annually and uses 2276% more electricity than it produces.
City of Santa Barbara , the total emissions of the city from electricity consumption is 122,908,407.94 kilograms of CO2 emissions, which ranks as the 101st largest emissions amount in California.
Electrical grid maintenance is currently highly dependent on fossil fuels
I am NOT arguing against capping these old oil wells, removing pipes and electricity, restoring drilling pads and roads to native conditions. I’m not arguing against continuing to transition to cleaner power sources. I am saying its still a long way off and additionally saying that suggestions that we stop production to stop consumption have the process backwards. If consumption drops, production will naturally follow. I guess I am also arguing against arbitrary milestones. Our governor, who wants to be President in 2024 if Biden falters, 2028 if he doesn’t, has set what I think are unreachable goals. For example he wants all new cars sold in 2035 to be all electric. I would be fine with this if he had first set the goal of enabling the electrical grid to be able to accommodate this by 2032 and work was already well underway
The sooner we stop using carbon-based fuels, the better. Solar and wind are already less expensive. Time to stop subsidizing polluters.