With the COVID pandemic changing daily life as we know it, we all find ourselves adjusting to a new normal. As two young climate and social justice activists enrolled at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and recently graduated from UC Santa Barbara, learning how to work, take classes, and organize from home has not been easy. Now more than ever, we sense the urgency to draw attention to the injustices perpetrated by the oil industry as it takes advantage of this pandemic to further pollute and to speak to how the climate crisis and the COVID crisis intersect. Despite being isolated from one another, we have found hope in coalitions and community organizing efforts that are providing outlets for mutual aid and community action. One such coalition is CA Youth Vs Big Oil , made up of a combination of environmental and social justice organizations such as Sunrise Movement, Center for Biological Diversity, and 350.org .
This coalition is currently working to address Governor Newsom as his administration has used our preoccupation with COVID-19 to covertly approve 48 new permits for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in Kern County's Lost Hills, in a shocking end to a nine-month moratorium on fracking. In April, Newsom issued 24 new permits to Aera Energy , a joint venture of Shell and ExxonMobil, followed by another 12 permits to Aera in June. Most recently Newsom approved 12 new permits to Chevron, bringing the total number of new permits in the Lost Hills Oil Field in Kern County to 48. The Center for Biological Diversity found that these 48 new permits authorize 360 separate fracking events as each well can be fracked multiple times.
Newsom’s actions leave us wondering: In the face of the current COVID-19 public health crisis that we know is exacerbated by air pollution from fossil fuels, why is the state prioritizing permits to polluting oil companies over human and environmental health? While the Trump administration has repeatedly illustrated where its priorities lay, we had hoped Governor Newsom might have demonstrated the same kind of leadership in his response to the public health crisis posed by fracking as he has to the public health crisis posed by COVID-19. But alas, it appears that after a short hiatus, Big Oil is once again being favored over people's lives.