California to Phase Out Oil and Gas Drilling By 2045, Ban Fracking in 3 Years

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday directed his administration to take steps to phase out oil and gas drilling in one of the nation's top oil-producing states by 2045 and to ban new fracking permits within three years.

Newsom has been under pressure from environmental activists and progressive politicians who say extraction of oil and gas is at odds with California's goals of moving away from fossil fuels and fighting climate change.

California Oil Production Declines

"I've made it clear I don't see a role for fracking in that future and, similarly, believe that California needs to move beyond oil," Newsom said in a statement.

Workers from ScanDrill Ltd clamp together pieces of pipe while drilling an oil well for Jagged Peak Energy Inc near Fort Stockton, Texas.
Workers from ScanDrill Ltd clamp together pieces of pipe while drilling an oil well for Jagged Peak Energy Inc near Fort Stockton, Texas. Reuters

Oil production in California has declined steadily since the 1980s, partly because of tough environmental standards. But government data shows the state remains the seventh-biggest U.S. crude oil producer, second-biggest oil consumer, and home to a tenth of U.S. refining capacity.

California's climate change policies also are among the most aggressive of any U.S. state, including a goal to ban gasoline-powered cars by 2035.

Several green groups and Democratic lawmakers said the state needed to move more quickly to phase out drilling, while the oil and gas industry criticized the governor's announcement, as did some politicians who said the action would hurt drilling-dependent jobs and communities.

The Western States Petroleum Association, in a statement, pledged "to fight this harmful and unlawful mandate."

US shale oil future
A pump jack stands idle in Dewitt County, Texas January 13, 2016. U.S. shale companies, which led the fracking revolution that unlocked vast new supplies of crude from rock, are fast losing their footing as a deeper plunge in oil to below $30 a barrel intensifies a financial tailspin that started more than a year ago Reuters

Newsom directed the California state oil and gas regulator, the Geologic Energy Management Division, to initiate a process that will halt the issuance of hydraulic fracturing permits by 2024. Fracking accounts for just 2% of oil extraction in California, according to the state's Department of Conservation.

In addition, the governor said the California Air Resources Board, which writes the state's climate change policies, will evaluate how to phase out oil and gas extraction by 2045.

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