By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor
“Let’s put you in the ground!” California Gov. Jerry Brown lashed out at scores of climate justice activists protesting his scientifically inadequate, corporate-friendly policy approach at the 23rd annual Conference of the Parties climate summit in Bonn, Germany on Nov. 11.
“That was a joke,” Brown told Amy Goodman, host of the independent global news program, Democracy Now! If so, it was in very poor taste — essentially, responding to environmentalists’ campaign to halt the mining of fossil fuels by twisting their “Keep it in the ground!” slogan into a threat with haunting genocidal undertones.
Daniel Ilario, one of two activists with Idle No More SF Bay—a group of Native Americans and allies—who spoke to Random Lengths News as representatives of the It Takes Roots delegation, assessed the significance of Brown’s retort.
“His violent response, and failure to apologize, saying his comment was a joke …illustrate the thought process of many elected officials around the world,” Ilario said. For them, “The extractive industry that leaves sacrifice zones across the globe is a given; the status quo cannot be changed. If thousands or millions have to die to keep the capitalist machine running, so be it.
“People dying of cancer near refineries and extraction sites is not a joke; indigenous people losing their land and sovereignty is not a joke.”
RL Miller, chairman of the California Democratic Party Environmental Caucus, said Brown has crafted a reputation that doesn’t match reality.
“Brown has done a terrific job getting world leaders to believe in his ‘Jerry Brown, Climate Hero’ mythos,” Miller said. “However, Californians who know him aren’t so easily fooled — hence the protestors in Bonn. He’s been acting as Chevron’s stenographer for most of his time in office, whether it’s firing oil regulators to appease oil industry demands or writing a cap- and-trade bill off an oil industry wish list.”
The cap-and-trade extension, passed this past July, was opposed by scores of environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, which two days earlier released a report, “Oil Stain: How Dirty Crude Undercuts California’s Climate Progress,” which directly clashed with Brown’s image. Yet, when pressed by Goodman, Brown insisted, “We have the toughest rules on oil.”
Illario, however, called it “a give away to the oil and gas industry,” and went to explain:
“Beyond the free carbon credits (up to 80 percent for oil refineries), the bill preemptively bans local air quality boards from capping carbon emissions until 2030. Furthermore, the cap and trade extension allows refineries to expand. The Phillips 66 refinery in Rodeo, California seeks to increase their bay terminal capacity to import 100 thousand more barrels of crude (much of it tar sands from Canada and crude from the Amazon) per day by ship. These are the “Toughest rules on oil” Jerry Brown speaks of.”
The CBD’s associate conservation director, Jean Su, who was also in Bonn, took an even broader exception to Brown’s claim. “Tax breaks, weak regulation, and negligent oversight make California a playground for oil companies,” Su told Random Lengths News. “For example, California is one of the only oil-producing states that does not levy a tax on oil extraction. California is also one of only a handful of states that allow oil companies to dump wastewater from oil and gas production into dangerous, open, unlined pits.”
In addition to those problems with California’s laws and regulations, Su singled out Brown’s own actions as well. “Brown, himself, has pressured regulators to speed up permitting for oil companies, firing officials who did not comply. He has refused to ban fracking despite its use of toxic chemicals and the fact that it is fundamentally incompatible with fighting climate change,” she said. “And he has failed to shut down the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility, where the largest methane leak in U.S. history forced thousands to flee their homes.”
There are so many issues involved that it can be hard to keep track—which appears to be part of the image-focused strategy Brown has adopted. But when it comes to the specific issue that sparked his ire, the “Oil Stain” report is especially significant, showing just how damaging California’s current—and future—oil production really is. Three-quarters of it is as climate-damaging as Canadian tar sands crude, including eight of California’s 10 largest-producing oil fields. The worst offenders were the Midway-Sunset oil field in Kern County and the San Ardo oil field in Monterey County, followed by four others in Kern and Fresno counties. More locally, the Wilmington and Huntington Beach oil fields also made the list.
“In the Los Angeles area, the Wilmington and Huntington Beach oil fields are a major concern because the oil industry extracts millions of barrels of particularly climate-damaging crude from these urban oil fields each year,” the report’s lead co-authors Shaye Wolf told Random Lengths News. “Oil drilling in these fields is dangerous for the climate and the health of surrounding communities.”
Wolf explained that center’s research built on the work of experts at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who “developed the Oil-Climate Index that estimates lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions (from production, refining, and end-use) for crudes from around the world.” Though far from exhaustive, “They provide Lifecycle [green house gases] for 75 crudes, covering 25 percent of global production,” she said. With incomplete records, statewide and national averages can’t be compared, “But California crudes stand out at the top as some of the world’s most climate-damaging in the sample of 75,” she said. “California crudes are the only U.S. crudes that made the top 10.”
Specifically, Wolf said, “The lifecycle GHG emissions of crude from California’s largest oil field, Midway-Sunset, ranked third out of 75 global crudes (at 725 kg carbon dioxide equivalent per barrel), making it one of the world’s highest greenhouse gas emitters, followed by South Belridge in Kern County in sixth place (at 690) and Wilmington in Los Angeles in tenth place (at 625).” After that, “Louisiana’s Lake Washington Field was the next closest, tied for 17th place.” Six Texas crudes ranged from 574 to 458, Alaska North Slope crude was 564 and North Dakota’s notorious Bakken crude came from two fields, registering 532 and 471.
“A major reason why California’s heavy oil is so climate-damaging is that pumping it from the ground requires energy-intensive extreme-extraction techniques such as cyclic steaming, steam flooding, waterflooding, and fracking,” the report explained. “Refining California’s heavy oils also produces large amounts of petcoke, a toxic byproduct that is worse for the climate than coal when burned.” The impacts of these extraction methods were a key part of what Brown was trying to cover up.
What’s more, the drilling of new wells shows no sign of letting up. “California oil regulators issued 3,303 drilling permits for oil and gas wells in 2015 alone,” the report notes. “In 2015, Kern County — the state’s largest oil-producing county — projected the development of approximately 2,697 new wells per year for the next 20 years and beyond.”
“California is tarnishing its climate leadership by encouraging oil companies to extract millions of barrels a year of some of the planet’s dirtiest crude,” Wolf said. “Our state’s huge reserve of dirty crude is a loaded gun pointed at our future. We can’t let the oil industry pull the trigger.”
So it was no surprise that Su strongly supported the protesters. “From aggressively promoting dangerous drilling to letting oil companies dump toxic waste into our water, Jerry Brown has been rolling out the red carpet for oil companies in California,” she said.
Brown pushed back vigorously when interviewed by Goodman. But the rationales he provided did not impress his critics. To start off, Brown told Goodman, “They called for a ban on all oil production.” But that’s not the case, Su said.
“We are not asking for an overnight shutdown of all fossil fuel production, nor did we ever suggest so,” Su said. “Instead, we call on Gov. Brown to begin a managed decline of oil production through halting the issuance of permits for all new drilling and fracking, new fossil fuel infrastructure and oil field expansion. California must also establish buffer zones that prohibit neighborhood drilling.”
Brown also told Goodman, “I don’t think we should shut down oil in California and then take it from Venezuela or take it from places where the rules are even worse.” Although the data cited in “Oil Stain” and the Carnegie Oil-Climate Index directly contradicts Brown’s argument, Su took a broader approach in her response.
“The climate crisis calls for nothing short of aggressively slashing both fossil fuel supply and fossil fuel demand simultaneously,” she said. “We agree that curbing oil demand is essential and we have called for an aggressive ban on all sales of new fossil fuel cars by 2025,” something Brown has yet to address. “But ramping down oil production is equally vital,” she said, pointing to the findings in the “Oil Stain” report.
“Contrary to Mr. Brown’s claims, a barrel of oil kept in the ground in California does not mean that a whole barrel of oil will be imported from elsewhere to replace it,” Su continued. “As a recent study by the Council on Foreign Relations found, oil consumption goes down when the oil supply decreases. Plus, the planet just can’t afford any more oil extraction. According to a study by Oil Change International, the world’s developed oil and gas fields—the ones we’re already pumping—contain enough carbon to carry us past the 1.5-degrees Celsius temperature limit agreed to in Paris.”
But Brown told Goodman that reducing production wasn’t the answer. “The answer is stop using oil in cars, in trucks. You need a renewable vehicle grid. That’s the answer,” he said.
“This quote by Jerry Brown shows exactly what type of person he is and his actions are so inhuman when it comes to oil and fracking,” said Isabella Zizi, a 23-year-old member of the Northern Cheyenne, Arikara, and Muskogee Creek tribes, as well as Idle No More SF Bay. “It’s like he’s blaming us as individuals who drive vehicles and using the oil, but he’s not looking at the oil refineries that he’s in favor for,” she said.
“I live in Richmond just 20 blocks away from the Chevron Refinery which is the biggest polluter in California. The new cap and trade bill that was passed summer 2017 will continue to let these refineries emit greenhouse gas emissions even more until 2030,” Zizi said. “This is directly impacting myself, my family, low income communities, people of color, contaminating and commodifying our waters, air, and soil. Big oil rules alongside our governor.”
Turning to the big picture, she said, “I believe this is a human rights violation to all of humanity. The rights of Mother Earth and rights of nature are being thrown down the gutter, and that is unacceptable. We have every right to call out Jerry Brown with his false solutions and supposedly being a ‘climate leader.’”
“The crisis today requires bold change, not corporate funded policy and legislation. The extractive industry must be left out of the decision making process,” Ilario said. “We must allow indigenous peoples to lead the way. They have lived tens of thousands of years in harmony with nature. We must immediately begin a just transition to a regenerative economy that respects the laws of Mother Nature so our relatives yet to be born have a chance to live.”
But the prospects of that are low, without much greater pressure from below, Miller warned. Regarding Brown, she said, “I’m honestly afraid that his last act as governor will be to wreak havoc on California’s progress by marrying our grid to that of Wyoming, ceding California authority to Wyoming’s, and trusting in Wyoming politicians to ease off coal.” Beyond that, she said, “The prospects for a better governor in 2019, after Brown leaves office, seem dim.”
So if activists are going to change those prospects, the time to do it is now.