Conservation groups sue again to stop local oil company s Carrizo Plain project bakersfield.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bakersfield.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Center for Biological Diversity Announces Lawsuit Filed to Stop New Oil Well, Pipeline in California’s Carrizo Plain National Monument Published: Thursday, 17 December 2020 05:54
Carrizo Plain National Monument Spring Bloom
Credit: Bob Wick, BLM Wilderness Specialist and Photographer
December 17, 2020 - BAKERSFIELD, Calif.― Conservation groups on Tuesday sued the Trump administration to reverse its approval of what would be the first new oil well and pipeline in Carrizo
Plain National Monument since it was established in 2001.
The legal action also seeks to resolve the fate of other long-dormant wells and associated facilities that the Bureau of Land Management identified for possible removal in 2013.
Local Conservation Groups Sue Feds kzoz.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kzoz.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Housing and Development Newsletter
The company, E&B Natural Resources, was supposed to restore the area to its natural condition, including recontouring and reseeding. The work was never done.
The bureau’s approval of new development backtracks on plans to restore the land. The monument’s management plan calls for phasing out oil drilling in the national monument, including promptly capping and remediating old wells and facilities that have not produced oil in decades.
Some of the oil wells in Carrizo Plain National Monument have sat dormant since the 1950s, potentially emitting greenhouse gasses, leaving a blight on the landscape and posing a risk to underground water supplies.
The Carrizo Plain National Monument. (Photo via Antandrus / Wikipedia)
(CN) Southern California’s Carrizo Plain National Monument is home to spectacular pastel super blooms, ancient pictograph rock art, and, if the Trump administration has its way, a soon-to-be oil well and pipeline.
Environmental advocates sued the federal government on Tuesday to block the project that has had an on-again, off-again status over the last several years and, if approved, would cut through the near-pristine Carrizo Plain.
In their 24-page complaint, the Center for Biological Diversity and Los Padres Forestwatch claim the federal government is blazing forward on the project without fully analyzing the environmental effects a pipeline would have on the region.