Newsom reportedly planning phase-out of fracking permits in California

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom is preparing a plan to phase out the oil extraction method known as fracking in California, according to environmentalists who were briefed on the effort.

Newsom is facing pressure to act from environmentalists who oppose fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, after a bill that would have banned it and some other extraction methods died in the Legislature last week.

Several members of environmental groups told The Chronicle on Thursday that they had been notified of an imminent announcement by Newsom to rein in fracking. Politico, citing unidentified environmental, legislative and industry sources, said the governor would ban new fracking permits starting in 2024.

The governor’s office said it had no information to share and did not respond to a request for further comment.

Fracking, in which high-pressure liquids are injected into the earth to release oil and gas deposits, accounts for only about 2% of California’s oil production, according to the state Department of Conservation. But it’s long been a controversial method because of what climate activists see as unacceptable dangers, including the possibility that it can contaminate groundwater.

Several environmentalists said Thursday that they would be disappointed by any fracking measure that does not eliminate new permits well before 2024 and restrict existing operations.

Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, said that although she had not been briefed on the plan, she was skeptical of what she’d heard about a potential 2024 timeline.

“A fracking ban is essential,” she said. “But we need it now, not years down the line — 2024 doesn’t make any sense.”

Alexandra Nagy, California director of Food & Water Watch, said in a statement that fracking is especially problematic now because operators use large amounts of water, and the state is in a drought.

“Banning new fracking permits three years from now does nothing to help people whose communities are being drilled and fracked today,” she said. “Now that the governor finally acknowledges he can take this action, he needs to do it now.”

Newsom asked the Legislature last fall to ban fracking, on the same day he said the state would end the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035.

The governor said he would support legislation to halt new fracking permits by 2024. At the time, he said he could not ban fracking without legislative approval, although many environmentalists disagreed.

Democratic state Sens. Scott Wiener of San Francisco and Monique Limon of Santa Barbara responded by introducing a bill that would have halted new fracking permits next year and gradually prohibited several more common forms of oil extraction by 2035.

Wiener and Limon’s legislation, SB467, was met with resistance from the oil industry and labor groups, which said it would eliminate nearly all California oil production and cost thousands of jobs. The bill failed to clear its first committee hearing last week.

Wiener is now considering introducing a pared-down version of the bill that would require 2,500-foot buffer zones between oil wells and homes, schools and other public places. A similar bill stalled in the Legislature last year.

Dustin Gardiner and J.D. Morris are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com, jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner, @thejdmorris