Tell BLM: No Drilling on CA Public Lands!

From CFROG Event Page

The federal administration is unleashing yet another attack on our precious public lands. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is threatening to open up over 1 million acres of public lands and mineral rights across California to polluting oil and gas corporations, threatening wildlife, recreation, tribal lands, and more.

Approximately 400,000 acres of parks, ecological reserves, and beaches across Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Kern, and surrounding counties are at risk of being opened up to new oil & gas drilling. Check out this map from our partners at Los Padres ForestWatch to see which areas are impacted.

On February 3rd at 5 pm, the BLM Bakersfield District Office (which includes Ventura County) will be hosting a public hearing on Zoom and receiving public input on this proposal to expand federal drilling. RSVP to join us at the CFROG office in Ventura to view the virtual hearing and give comment among community! We will be gathering with good company as we give public comments urging BLM to rethink this reckless giveaway to Big Oil together. Bring a snack for yourself or to share if you’d like!

If you plan to join us at the office:

• RSVP using this form
• You must also register to give comment on Zoom here (please do this now!)
• Bring a laptop or smartphone to give your comment virtually (if you don’t have one, we can work with you at the office).
• Prepare a 1-2 minute comment; feel free to pull from the sample comment below and include your personal story and concern!

When: Tuesday, February 3rd from 5:00 to 6:30 pm

What: Community viewing & comments for BLM proposal to open new oil and gas leases

Where: CFROG office in Ventura (address sent upon RSVP)

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Can’t make it to the office on Tuesday? 

1. You can make virtual comment from home on 2/3 — register here!
2. Submit written comment today to tell BLM we will not accept any new fracking or drilling on lands that belong to all of us!

What should I say in my public comment?

Each commenter will have 2 minutes during the virtual hearing to share their opinion on the proposed drilling plans. Use these talking points to help draft your comment! Be sure to include:

• Your name and city of residence
• That the BLM should rescind and revise their proposed plan
• Your personal story (why is this issue important to you?)

Public comment tips:

• Keep it brief! Stick to 2-3 main points.
• Practice reading your comment! This will help ensure that you are familiar with what you’ve written AND that you can deliver your comment within the 2 minute time limit.
• Support the facts of the issue with your personal experience; regulatory agencies know the data, not your story. Highlight how this issue will impact you, your family, your community, etc.
• Speak clearly when delivering your comment.

Check out this sample public comment for inspiration!

“My name is ___ and I am a resident of ___. I am urging you to rescind and revise your plans to open up over 1 million acres of public lands and mineral rights to oil and gas drilling and fracking in California. The supplemental environmental impact statements for both the Central Coast (DOI-BLM-CA-C090-2025-0017-EIS) and Bakersfield (DOI-BLM-CA-C060-2025-0053-EIS) regions are fundamentally flawed and dismiss or simply defer disclosure and rigorous analysis of environmental impacts to a later date. 

The documents fail to take seriously the fact that more fracking and drilling will increase greenhouse gas emissions and intensify the climate crisis. From extreme heat, to wildfires, to droughts, to floods, Californians are already bearing the costs of climate change. Extracting more oil and gas from our public lands will turbocharge these costs. 

The documents also fail to adequately evaluate the harm more toxic oil pollution will do to our health by contaminating the air we breathe and the water we drink. The Central Valley, where much of the drilling is being proposed, is already burdened with the worst air quality in the country. Low income and communities of color are disproportionately harmed. The documents have not adequately assessed the compounding health harms communities, like those in the Central Valley, will be forced to endure if more drilling moves forward.  

Drilling is being proposed near the Carrizo Plain National Monument and around popular recreational sites like Pinnacles National Park, Mount Diablo State Park, Henry W. Coe State Park and Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve. These places are home to San Joaquin kit foxes, giant kangaroo rats, monarch butterflies, burrowing owls, California condors, and the California jewelflower. The threats more drilling poses to these species have been woefully underestimated in the documents.  

The documents also flout existing California laws. California has banned fracking and enforces a 3200ft buffer zone between oil drilling and communities. These critical laws protect Californians and our climate. The documents suggest BLM intends to ignore these laws and put communities at risk by allowing drilling and fracking near homes, schools, and hospitals. 

These documents are proposing the same decisions and flawed environmental analyses the Bureau of Land Management came to five years ago that were challenged in court. These legal challenges resulted in a settlement ordering BLM to redo their analysis. The plans suggest the BLM has not taken its obligation to redo its assessment seriously. Instead, the agency appears to be ignoring the advances in climate science, new special-status species that have been considered or listed for protections, and the most recent studies linking oil and gas extraction to adverse health outcomes that have been published since the settlement. 

For all these reasons, I urge you to rescind these Supplemental Environmental Impact Statements, update these analyses with disclosure of impacts instead of deferring to the permitting stage, and amend the Resource Management Plans to value health and environmental protections over extraction.”