California voters may face dueling measures on 2024 ballot about oil wells near homes and schools
Environmental advocates in California are launching a campaign to ask voters to ban new oil and gas wells near homes, schools and hospitals
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California voters may be asked twice on the same November 2024 ballot whether to keep or to ditch a law mandating new oil wells be a certain distance away from homes, schools and parks.
Recently, state lawmakers have been debating whether to reform the referendum process that makes overturning a law possible, as it has been leveraged by powerful industries to invalidate laws that are unfavorable to them.
Last year, lawmakers approved so-called buffer zones around oil wells, which dot communities around Los Angeles and the state's Central Valley, as part of a package of bills aimed at tackling climate change and pollution. The oil industry quickly moved to undo the law by gaining a spot on the 2024 ballot.
But on Wednesday environmental advocates put forward their own proposed ballot measure aimed at getting voters to require buffer zones.
“People who live next to oil wells get very, very sick. Californians who live next to this stuff, they have headaches, nosebleeds, nausea," said Kassie Siegel, director of the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. «You do not want the oil company moving in next door.”
The possibility of dueling ballot measures on new oil wells also showcases the growing political tension around California's approach to dealing with climate change, with Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration increasingly passing laws aimed at shrinking the oil and gas industry. Two measures on the same ballot could confuse voters, threatening both sides' chances of success.
Outside California, nearly half of U.S. states have a process
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