California Proposes Ban on Fracking by 2027

April 8, 2021

California has become the leader for extreme eco-left policies with little to no regard for the economic impacts they have on household’s energy bills. Democratic California lawmakers proposed a bill that would ban fracking by 2027, just six years from now.

Fox News reports:

The bill, from Democratic state Sens. Scott Wiener of San Francisco and Monique Limon of Santa Barbara, would prohibit new fracking permits or renewals by Jan. 1, 2022, while also banning permits within 2,500 feet of homes or schools.

Unsurprisingly, this new bill does not sit well with Republican lawmakers or industry workers. Assembly Member Vince Fong, who represents Kern County which produces 70% of California’s oil, discusses how the bill “will devastate the local economy” and “destroy careers in California.”

“Not only would it cost us jobs, but it would also make things more expensive in California at a time when it’s already expensive to live and work in our state, we need to be making things more affordable” said Fong. “We need to be creating jobs. We need to power our economy. And that can be done by supporting our local oil industry.”

A study conducted by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation found that the oil and gas industry supports 366,000 jobs in California.

This bill has the potential to push many residents out of the state. Rita Waugh has lived in California her whole life and is now fearful she will have to uproot her family and move to a new state. Waugh is one of the 366,000 workers the oil and gas industry supports in California, having worked for Aera Energy for close to 20 years. Now she is fearful for her job security, she shared her concern with Fox saying, “my job and many other jobs in the oil industry would be in danger if this measure were to pass.”

“It’s not just necessarily my job. It’s the restaurants and the businesses that I then go and spend my income in support of this community. I think it would change really change the dynamics of this entire community.”

Waugh is concerned that “people who are paying taxes, supplying for their family, offering their family economic stability would find themselves unemployed on the basis of politics … so that’s a real threat.”

If this bill were to become a law, it would have devastating effects on communities across California and threaten the reliability of the state’s energy grid. We have seen just in the last few months how devastating it is to not have reliable energy. California lawmakers need to wake up and stop playing politics with the livelihoods of their constituents. We hope they think about the impacts this ban would have on the 366,000 California jobs supported by the industry and the inevitable skyrocketing of household energy bills for their constituents.