The Bureau of Land Management has begun paving the way for new oil and gas leases in California, concluding in draft environmental analyses that new drilling would not significantly harm public health or the environment.
The analyses — which BLM’s Bakersfield Field Office and Central Coast Field Office released Monday — cover potential leases in large swaths of federal land in central and coastal California. The draft supplemental environmental impact statements conclude that future emissions from oil and gas development in the area would be “minor.”
BLM is considering various leasing options after years of litigation over drilling in the region. Environmental groups sued over environmental impact statements released in 2019, during the first Trump administration, arguing BLM did not adequately consider environmental harms. That led to 2022 settlements in which BLM agreed to conduct further analyses — including of drilling techniques like hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — while suspending new oil and gas leasing in the area.
The draft supplemental EISs will be open for public comment until early March. The program areas range from the San Francisco Bay Area south to the Los Angeles suburbs and east to Fresno and Bakersfield.
