Three Central Valley elected officials have added their names to a petition urging Gov. Jerry Brown to end oil and gas production in California — a move that, if successful, would heavily impact Kern’s economy and county property tax revenues.
Huron Mayor Rey Leon, San Joaquin City Councilman Jose Ornelas and Eric Payne, a trustee at State Center Community College District in Fresno County, joined 150 government officials statewide asking Brown to withhold petroleum permits, among other measures, as a way to reduce pollution and slow climate change. The petition was originally sent to the governor June 26.
“The biggest impact of fossil fuels are in our communities with the lowest income families, and farm worker communities like mine with poor air quality and contamination from fracking (the well-stimulation technique also called hydraulic fracturing) and drilling,” Leon said in a news release Thursday.
The group behind the petition, Elected Officials to Protect California, an offshoot of an anti-oil organization founded on the East Coast, has proposed ending oil and gas work within 2,500 feet of homes and other sensitive areas, as part of a transition to full reliance on renewable energy.
As the state’s leader in petroleum production, Kern would suffer economic harm if the campaign to end oil and gas work were to succeed. The industry employed some 12,000 workers countywide until a downturn in barrel prices in mid-2014. Kern is also a leading producer of wind and solar power.