The Loop Newspaper - Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide

In response to Governor Gavin Newsom's announcement that his administration will undertake to phase out hydraulic fracturing, and ultimately all oil extraction in California, Kern County Supervisor Zack Scrivner issued the following statement.

"Newsom's announcement today continues his misguided and heartless attack on Kern County communities and families, where the oil and gas industry contributes nearly $200 million in property taxes to local governments and schools, provides 17,000 good-paying direct jobs, and twice that number of indirect jobs," Scrivner said.  "Kern County's oil and gas industry has the cleanest and safest standard of production in the world, but Newsom inexplicably prefers to supply California's growing demand for oil from foreign countries with terrible environmental standards and loathsome human rights records.  Newsom, and his radical environmentalist allies, continue to tell the lie that green energy will replace the lost tax dollars to the County of Kern after they destroy our oil industry, but they refuse to end solar energy's statewide property tax exclusion, resulting in only $1.5 million in annual property taxes compared to the $80 million annually that oil and gas contribute."  

Under Governor Newsom's directive, CalGEM will immediately initiate rulemaking to halt the issuance of new hydraulic fracturing permits by 2024.  Additionally, Governor Newsom requested that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) analyze pathways to phase out oil extraction across the state by no later than 2045.   

Supervisor Scrivner represents Kern County's Second District, which includes the oil producing communities of Taft and Maricopa.