EYE ON OIL
vcreporter.com
Referendums under fire
by Kimberly Rivers kimberly@vcreporter.com
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Groups allege oil industry misled the public
our local environmental groups argue a Sacramento-based political action committee (PAC) has violated state laws by intending to mislead the public during a signature-gathering referendum effort in Ventura County aimed at overturning recent changes to the county’s oil and gas permitting processes. Ventura County Counsel Michael Walker confirmed that his office has received and is reviewing a complaint letter dated Dec. 18, 2020, from Kevin Bundy, attorney with Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger LLP, representing Climate First! Replace Oil and Gas (CFROG), Los Padres ForestWatch, Sierra Club Los Padres Chapter and Food and Water Watch. Walker declined to comment further on the matter. That letter, addressed to Mark Lunn, Ventura County Clerk-Recorder, Registrar of Voters, alleges the process used by Working Families for Jobs and Energy Independence (WFJEI) to collect signatures submitted in support of their referendums violated state law, and therefore Lunn should not certify the signatures. Assistant Registrar of Voters Tracy Saucedo, spokesperson with Lunn’s office, confirmed that 45,764 signatures were submitted for the referendum against the NonCoastal Zoning Ordinance 4568 and 45,548 signatures were submitted supporting the referendum against Coastal Zoning Ordinance 4567. She said 30,912 valid signatures are required for each referendum. Lunn’s office has until Jan. 26 to certify the signatures. “Activists are obviously desperate to prevent Ventura County voters from having the final say on this important issue,” said Sabrina Lockhart, spokesperson with WFJEI and vice president of communications for California Independent Petroleum Association (CIPA), a membership-based trade group for oil companies in the state. WFJEI is a regis-
tered committee with the state and lists CIPA and Aera Energy, a Shell/Exxon company, as its sponsors. WFJEI paid signature gatherers working at various locations throughout the county as part of its referendum effort. Saucedo explained that all signers “must be a Ventura County registered voter at the address he/she listed on the petition at the time the person signed the petition. Each petition page...is entered into the Elections Division’s voter registration petition module. The system randomly selects 3% of the signatures to be verified and each signature is then compared by Election Division staff against the voter’s registration records.” If Lunn’s office certifies the signatures, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors will have the choice to either reverse its previous changes to the oil drilling permitting process, or the referendums will be placed on the ballot in 2022 in a regularly scheduled general election. The supervisors also have the option of holding a special election. Due to the referendum effort, the oil and gas permitting changes, duly authorized by a majority vote of the elected supervisors, are currently inactive. The changes, which WFJEI is working to overturn, subject all new oil drilling and some re-drilling and reworking of wells to modern environmental review. Opponents of the new permitting rules have said it will decimate the oil and gas industry in the county, and cause the loss of thousands of jobs. The groups in support of the changes say they are needed to ensure oil companies are held to modern standards like all other business sectors — something decades-old permits paired with county processes failed to require. Continued on Page 8
A portion of the Ventura Oil Field, operated by Aera Energy, which would now be subject to new environmental review under revised permit rules being challenged. Google Earth Image, Jan. 2021. January 14, 2021 —
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