Thousands of new oil wells could be drilled in Kern County annually after a decision from the Kern County Board of Supervisors.
On Thursday, the Kern County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to revise a zoning ordinance that could allow around 2,700 new drilling permits annually.
The big picture: The move was a step to transfer oil permitting authority from state officials to local hands, given the lengthy project reviews that have been saddled by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
- Thursday’s move is no guarantee that oil permitting will take off, however, since the county needs to obtain court approval in order to have the revisions comply with CEQA.
- Local oil and gas permitting could resume in July, but environmental groups could challenge the rules in court and effectively suspend them for the next year.
The backstory: Kern County initially approved its oil and gas zoning ordinance in 2015, but a court order put a stop to local permitting in 2020 by allowing legal permitting the following two years and completely suspended it in 2023.
- Kern County has tried two times already to pass its environmental impact report, but courts blocked the effort both times due to it not meeting CEQA requirements.
Go deeper: In its latest attempt, Kern County will require oil producers to remove old infrastructure on agricultural land before they drill new wells.
- Oil companies will also have to cover the cost to preserve farmland somewhere else in the county of equal acreage.
What we’re watching: Environmental groups have 30 days to file a lawsuit to oppose the revisions.
