Dear Governor Newsom,
We are encouraged by your actions in standing up to Big Oil bullies, and we want you to know we stand with you and urge you to go further by halting all new oil and gas permits and finalizing the rulemaking process to establish a 3,200 health & safety buffer zone between communities and oil and gas wells.
The oil and gas industry has created a climate, health, and environmental justice emergency in California. As your administration has acknowledged, and as the latest U.N. climate report drives home, the time for urgent and transformative action to move California beyond fossil fuels is now.
We know the fight for climate justice is intersectional: we cannot fight the climate crisis without also dismantling racism. Neighborhood oil drilling is the direct result of environmentally racist policies that have left communities of color overburdened by toxic, polluting industries.
That’s why I am joining the Big Oil Resistance and urging you to use your existing powers to:
1. Stop issuing permits for fossil fuels & the resulting climate pollution
2. Drop oil and gas production in the state.
3. End neighborhood oil drilling by rolling out a 3,200-foot health & safety buffer zone between communities and new and existing oil & gas wells.
4. Lead on a statewide just transition plan that protects and supports workers, communities and economies in the transition off fossil fuels.
We are asking you to be the leader Californians and the global community need and deserve by taking clear, concrete steps to address the root causes of our climate crisis, environmental justice, and related public health emergencies.