SACRAMENTO – (INT) – California has gone to court challenging the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plan to open up more than one million acres of public lands in Central California to oil and gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California alleges that BLM’s environmental review of the project failed to fully evaluate the significant and adverse impacts on the communities and environment of Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare, and Ventura Counties, and requests that the court set aside the decision.

“BLM’s decision to advance this half-baked proposal isn’t just misguided, it’s downright dangerous,” said Attorney General Xavier Becerra. “The risks to both people and the environment associated with fracking are simply too high to ignore. But that’s essentially what BLM is doing. We won’t ignore the facts and science when it comes to protecting our people, economy, and environment – and we’re taking the Trump Administration to court to prove it.”

Story Date: January 22, 2020