By Blanca Begert, POLITICO
OIL COUNT: The U.S. may have had a record high year for oil drilling, but in California new oil and gas well permits hover near record lows. The state approved 73 new oil wells in 2024, according to new numbers published today by two advocacy groups, Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance.
That’s more than double the 25 new wells last year, but still far below the number of permits issued in 2021 and 2022, which numbered in the 500s. And it’s a very steep decline from the 2,664 new oil and gas wells permitted in 2019 when Newsom first took office.
Of all the permits approved last year, 33 were issued on federal land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management. Oil well rework permits came to 1,468, a 28 percent decline from 2023.
FracTracker and Consumer Watchdog attribute the decline to exhausted oil reserves and stricter California Energy Management Division permitting requirements. “We commend the Newsom Administration for dwindling permit approvals,” said Liza Tucker, an advocate for Consumer Watchdog.
But as new drilling declines, environmental groups and consumer advocates continue to draw attention towards old, low-producing and abandoned wells.
They’re pointing to a letter from a group of lawmakers last year asking the California Geological Energy Management Division, under 2023’s AB 1167, to make California Resources Corp. post financial security for the full cost of plugging Aera Energy’s wells when CRC acquired Aera last year. The letter estimated the potential cost to be over $1 billion, but regulators decided that the merger wasn’t subject to the law. CalGEM didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.