During President Donald Trump’s first term, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved a plan to make 725,500 acres of federal public lands and mineral estate available for oil and gas leasing in the Bay Area and Central Coast. The counties of Monterey and Santa Cruz, alongside environmental groups, argued the decision failed to consider meaningful alternatives and disclose environmental impacts, leading to a lawsuit in 2020.
On June 23, roughly six years later and during Trump’s second term, the BLM issued a new Record of Decision after a court settlement required it to take a closer look. The agency reaffirmed its original decision, leaving the 725,500 acres eligible for future leases.
“More oil and gas development is not only a threat to our health,” says Cooper Kass, an attorney at Center for Biological Diversity, a plaintiff in the case, “but also safety, climate, and a strain on taxpayer funds when those wells need to be cleaned up.”
So far, BLM has begun environmental reviews for 50 parcels, according to Kass, almost all of which are in the Bakersfield field office and one in Fresno in the Central Coast planning area. Once those reviews are complete, the BLM may decide whether to offer the parcels for lease through a competitive bidding process.
According to BLM, the decision to open federal lands for potential leasing is in alignment with Interior which is designed to expedite fossil fuel expansion and remove impediments.
BLM published a report identifying areas with the greatest potential for future gas and oil development. It identifies Monterey County as one of two main areas in the Central Coast field office area, along with areas in Fresno County.
Nearly all well development since 2002 in the Central Coast planning area occurred in Lynch Canyon Oil Field near San Ardo and the Monroe Swell Oil Field near Greenfield, the report states, and in Fresno County.
The Salinas Basin in South Monterey County is regarded as favorable for petroleum development, while the Monterey Peninsula, the Gabilan Range and Northern Santa Lucia Range are considered geologically unfavorable and therefore not expected to see future oil development.
“New oil and gas leases could jeopardize our vibrant coastal economy, threaten our environment and undermine our way of life in California’s 19th Congressional District,” says U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley.
There are almost 500 idle wells in Monterey County – wells that are no longer productive but can still leak oil and pollutants – 97 percent of which are located above groundwater sources.
Oil drilling draws up water from underground, which is injected back into aquifers considered exempt, or no longer a source of drinking water.
“There’s tremendous concern about injecting that contaminated water back underground,” Kass says. “It can migrate, if there’s any imperfections in that process, into beneficial-use groundwater.”