As the oil industry wages a multimillion-dollar campaign to overturn California's drilling restrictions, the campaign to defend the state's environmental protections is beginning to resemble a Hollywood blockbuster.
In a show of political clout and celebrity influence, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and actress Jane Fonda joined Gov. Gavin Newsom and environmental advocates Friday in Los Angeles to call on voters to save Senate Bill 1137, a state law aimed at banning new oil. Gas drilling will be within 3,200 feet of homes, schools and parks next year.
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Although Newsom signed the measure into law in 2022, the California oil industry spent about $20 million to collect enough signatures to put the law on the November ballot.
However, fossil fuel interest groups have been challenged by a well-funded political committee, whose biggest sponsors include former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, outdoor clothing retailer Patagonia, and a coalition of environmental groups.
As part of their counterattack, they recruited Schwarzenegger and Fonda, two longtime opponents of oil drilling, to attend a news conference at the Ladera Heights soccer stadium adjacent to the Inglewood oil field — the largest urban drilling site in the country.
“They're spending millions and millions of dollars because they want to tell the people of California that it's safe to drill next door,” Schwarzenegger said as the pumps swayed slowly behind him.
“They come back with the same trick and the same dialogue. There will be no difference. They will be terminated again,” he continued, referring to his famous “Terminator” film series.
The oil industry has claimed that a decline in domestic oil production will lead to increased oil imports and increased emissions from shipping.
“Senate Bill 1137 not only prevents the drilling of new wells. It shuts down existing wells because maintenance is not permitted,” said Rock Zerman, CEO of the California Independent Petroleum Assn. “It means we will be importing more from the Saudi royal family instead of From using local energy produced by California workers.”
A referendum on oil drilling has developed into one of the most expensive ballot measures in the 2024 general election so far, according to state election data. Environmental advocates say the consequences are far-reaching.
There are more than 100,000 offline oil and gas wells across California, and they are known to release cancer-causing chemicals and methane that are warming the planet.
About 30,000 of those wells are within 3,200 feet of sensitive sites, according to the California Department of Environmental Conservation, the government agency that oversees drilling. This includes the homes of about 2.7 million Californians.
“Oil companies are calling front-line communities ‘sacrifice zones,’” said Fonda, who created her own political action committee to expel fossil fuel supporters from public office. “We have to prove to them that we will not tolerate so many Californians being considered vulnerable.” “For sacrifice.”
Activist Nalili Kubo, left, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jane Fonda, and Gov. Gavin Newsom at an event Friday in Ladera Heights.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Environmental activist Nalili Kubo, who grew up 30 feet from oil wells in South Los Angeles, said she experienced the health effects firsthand. Since she was nine years old, she has suffered from nosebleeds so severe that she had to sleep in a chair to avoid suffocation at night.
“Clean air is a fundamental and fundamental human right and we have been deprived of it,” Kubo said at the event on Friday. “The oil industry has no place in our backyards, in our democracy, or in our future. Let’s prove to the oil industry that they don’t have that power.”
Newsom stressed the importance of transitioning away from fossil fuels to achieve the state's lofty climate goals and stave off the worst effects of global warming.
“Let's not mince words: The climate crisis is a fossil fuel crisis,” Newsom said.
He added: “It is burning gas, it is burning coal, it is burning oil. And these men, they fooled us like fools.”
Newsom's comments are his latest provocation against oil producers in the state. He has previously said he supports ending oil extraction by 2045, the year state officials hope the state will have eliminated its carbon footprint.
Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks Friday near the Englewood Oil Field, the largest urban drilling site in the United States.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Newsom and California Atty. General Rob Bonta announced last year that the state was suing some of the largest oil companies for deceiving the public about global warming.
Joining Schwarzenegger, California's last Republican governor, Newsom said the fight to reduce pollution and greenhouse gases is bipartisan, pointing to President Nixon's formation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and former California Governor Ronald Reagan's creation of the California Air Resources Board.
Newsom said some Californians have already seen the devastating effects of global warming, underscoring the need to act.
“There is neither a Democratic nor a Republican thermometer,” Newsom said. “There's just reality.”
“You have to believe your eyes,” he added. “This planet is heating up. It's suffocating, it's burning. We have simultaneous droughts and rain bombs happening over and over again. Lifestyles, places and traditions have been completely wiped out.
