Source: Common Dreams

Excerpt:

More than 100 scientists on Monday urged California Gov. Gavin Newsom to stop approving new permits for fossil fuel drilling in the nation’s most populous state—especially in residential neighborhoods. 

In a letter, the scientists thank Newsom, a Democrat, for “taking key steps toward protecting California’s frontline communities and our climate from fossil fuel pollution, including supporting legislation to establish a health and safety buffer zone between communities and oil and gas extraction and taking steps to end Big Oil’s price gouging of working families at the pump.”

“However, in this time of emergency, we are shocked at the sharp increase in oil and gas permitting by CalGEM, which has approved more than 1,000 permits this year for oil and gas operators to continue drilling,” the scientists continued, referring to the state’s energy management agency. “Even more shocking is the fact that almost two-thirds of those permits are for projects within the landmark 3,200-foot health and safety buffer you and your administration fought hard to pass last fall.”

The letter asserts that “California’s oil industry has created an interlinked public health, environmental justice, and climate crisis in our state,” and that “public health studies have established that living near oil and gas wells increases the risks of cancer, asthma, and other respiratory diseases, preterm births, low birth weights, and other serious harms.”

Read more: 100+ Scientists to Newsom: Stop Oil and Gas Drilling in California—Especially Near Homes