Keith Nakatani - Program Manager

Yesterday, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) adopted the strongest regulations in the country to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas production and storage.

Clean Water Action and our allies led the charge to get these regulations in place.

California’s water regulators are finally cracking down on the harmful practice of dumping toxic oil wastewater into open pits, although slowly.

California is the third leading producer of oil in the country and although Kern County produces most of the state's oil, the Los Angeles area is the nation's largest urban oilfield. Oil production facilities are sited immediately next door to homes, schools, and shopping centers. One in three  LA County residents live within one mile of an oil-drilling site—a pretty eye-watering statistic—and yet, no government agency or regulatory body has ever carried out a study of the health impacts on the city’s residents. 

Kern County is the "belly of the beast" for the California's oil and gas industry, where almost 80 percent of the state's oil is produced. It’s where the vast majority of the environmental and health fallout is.

It’s not often that I’m pleased to see our lawmakers speed-up the legislative process, because it can mean special interests, such as oil and gas companies, are able to unduly wield influence behind closed doors.