On the eve of Governor Newsom’s announcement that he would be attending the Glasgow climate summit, he traveled to Wilmington, a neighborhood in Los Angeles with the highest concentration of oil drilling in Los Angeles, to announce that California’s energy division would be adding to its regulations a 3,200-foot setback from homes and schools for new wells.
Asthma, other respiratory illnesses, preterm births, and low birth weights are among the adverse effects from oil and gas pollution. At the center of the effort to protect Californians from those health consequences has been Santa Barbara’s State Senator Monique Limón and Assembly Bill 1057.
“In 2019, I authored AB 1057 to ensure CalGEM (California Geologic Energy Management Division) could consider public health impacts when making rules related to oil and gas production,” Limón told the Independent. That buffer zone would protect homes, schools, and hospitals, she said. Her bill also added a responsibility for CalGEM to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from hydrocarbon development and to increase oil industry bonds for decommissioning wells and oil and gas facilities.