Could we see new oil drilling in areas like Carpinteria, Ojai, Lompoc, and the Cuyama Valley?
It might be a possibility, as the Trump Administration has reintroduced a proposal to allow oil and mineral exploration on 850,000 acres of federally owned or managed land in the Tri-Counties and Central Valley.
The affected areas encompass about 270,000 acres in the Tri-Counties, including 27,763 acres in Ventura County, 121,413 acres in Santa Barbara County, and 122,546 acres in San Luis Obispo County.
"The Trump Administration is proposing to redo a management plan that it initially approved several years ago that would open up several hundred thousand [acres] of public lands to oil drilling and fracking," said Jeff Kuyper, Executive Director of the nonprofit environmental group Los Padres ForestWatch. "Some of it is critical lands which really define our region. They're even targeting federally owned land, and federally owned mineral rights underneath schools, conservation lands, trails, county parks, and beaches."
He added that many of the areas in question are adjacent to the Los Padres National Forest and the Carrizo Plain National Monument.
"Those are two areas that are not included in the plan. They have their own management plans. But this plan is targeting federal lands outside of those areas," Kuyper explained. "That includes lands that are administered by the (federal) Bureau of Land Management. Often they are directly adjacent to the national forest [or] adjacent to the national monument. And, there are also scattered parcels all around our region."
According to Kuyper, many potential sensitive environmental areas are at risk, creating situations where oil exploration is encroaching on homes and schools.
What does he think is motivating the new proposal?
"This is all a part of the Trump Administration's energy dominance agenda. It's this effort to open up public land everywhere to more industrial development, more drilling, more fracking. It's going to cause some significant harm to our climate and our community."
While it’s a new proposal, it’s an old plan. The first Trump Administration introduced a similar drilling proposal. In 2020, Forestwatch, the Sierra Club, Patagonia, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Friends of the Earth joined forces with the state in lawsuits to try to stop the plan. A judge ruled that more environmental review was needed before the plan could proceed, and the Trump Administration dropped the effort. Now, it’s restarting the proposal, using the court-mandated review process.
The BLM is accepting comments on the proposal through July 23.
Kuyper said the proposed timeline for approval is tight. It calls for the review to be completed and the plan approved by the end of the year. He said ForestWatch and other environmental groups are still seeking what they fought for five years ago, which was a complete environmental review of the plan.
If approved, state laws might provide some protections.
Kuyper thinks it’s too soon to tell if the environmental community will turn to the courts again to try to block the plan.
