Public comment window opens Monday for plans to expand oil and gas development in previously protected lands across Central California
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced a 30-day public comment period opening Monday concerning changes to current federal protections to allow new oil and gas leasing and development on public lands including within the California Coastal National Monument and the Carrizo Plain National Monument.
On June 23, the federal agency’s Bakersfield Field Office will publish a Federal Register Notice of Intent which will start a 30-day public comment period where statements from the public will be collected about additional oil and gas development on public lands in Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare, and Ventura counties.
Public comments on the proposed changes must be submitted through the Bureau of Land Management’s project website here.
The changes to federal laws protecting designated national monuments are in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Order 3418 ‘Unleashing American Energy’ and the Trump Administration’s Jan. 20, 2025 Executive Order 14154 also entitled ‘Unleashing American Energy’ explained a press release from the Bureau of Land Management Friday.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management California offices manage nearly 600 currently producing oil and gas leases and a total of 7,900 usable wells across the more that 200,000 acres the federal agency oversees.
According to the land management agency, between 80 and 90 percent of all current surface-disturbing activities related to oil and gas extraction on public lands are in the San Joaquin Valley with more than 95 percent of all federal drilling in the Kern County portion shown as the blue highlights on the interactive map above.
Federal production makes up an average of eight to ten percent of California’s oil and natural gas production noted the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
The California Coastal National Monument is about 1,000 acres of more than 20,000 offshore rock formations, exposed reefs, and small islands as well as 7,924 acres of onshore areas along the California Coast.
Those onshore areas are broken down into six distinctive units: the Trinidad Head Lighthouse, the Waluplh-Lighthouse Ranch, the Lost Coast Headlands, Point Arena-Stornetta, the Cotoni-Coast Dairies, and Piedras Blancas.
Part of the Point Arena-Stornetta section of the California Coastal National Monument courtesy of the Bureau of Land ManagementThe monument was created by a Presidential Proclamation on January 11, 2000 and expanded twice during the Obama Administration under the authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906.
The Carrizo Plain National Monument is approximately 211,045 acres of protected lands mostly in eastern San Luis Obispo County and was created by a Jan. 17, 2001 proclamation by then-President Clinton.
The national monument is traversed by the San Andreas Fault, is home for several threatened or endangered wildlife and plant species, and hosts the largest remaining natural alkali wetland in southern California -Soda Lake.
Image of the Carrizo Plain National Monument courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management
