More new CA oil drilling permits approved in Jan. 2026 than all of 2025 as oil lobby spending soars

If people still believe the false narrative that California is the nation’s “green” and “progressive” leader, as many folks who haven’t looked at the actual data might believe, here’s some sobering news for them. 

In 2025, permit approvals for drilling new wells continued falling, but in the first three weeks of January alone, California oil regulators issued more new drilling permits than for all of 2025, according to a new analysis from Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance.

In 2025, permit approvals fell to 17 from 73 the year before. But in January, the California Energy Management Division (CalGEM) bested that number by approving 20 new drilling permits.

To make things even worse, “continued progress in cutting fossil fuel production is now under assault from new state legislation, federal drilling plans, and industry lawsuits,” the latest report from the two groups revealed.

Many of the hardest hit communities are in Kern County, the epicenter of oil production in California, the groups noted. 

“Our region already suffers from some of the worst air quality in the country, and increasing drilling without strong oversight puts our health at further risk,” said Cesar Aguirre, Director, Air and Climate Justice at the Central California Environmental Justice Network. “More wells mean more pollution and more unchecked leaks, especially when satellite data shows California’s oil and gas operations are among the largest methane emitters globally. Our communities need stronger enforcement and real protections, not decisions that allow industry to expand while residents pay the price.”

“CalGEM’s more deliberate consideration over permit approvals over the last five years already appears to be reversing–in keeping with Governor Newsom's apparent shift toward supporting expanded drilling,” the groups continued. “In the last quarter of 2025, CalGEM approved eight new drilling permits; seven in Kern County and one in Orange County that is located within the state's public health protection zone between communities and drilling.”

Together with the 20 additional permits for new drilling in Kern County issued in January, that brings the total in the last month of 2025 and first month of this year to 28 permits, according to CalGEM data analyzed by FracTracker Alliance. 

Since Governor Newsom entered the Governor’s Office in 2019, a total of 18,964 permits, including reworks, have been granted. 5,587 of those permits were to drill new oil wells.

“Between January 2011 when Brown assumed office and the end of 2018, a total of 23,618 permits to drill new oil and gas wells were issued. Nearly the same amount of permits to rework existing wells were also approved,” the groups wrote.

For more on permit counts and locations, go to: Newsomwellwatch.com, a website jointly operated by Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance.

“Approvals under Newsom to drill new oil and gas wells were going down and now that is in jeopardy,” said Consumer Advocate Liza Tucker. “The new drilling permit in the public health protection zone combined with almost 30 new drilling permits issued in just the last two months looks like the state is gearing up for expanded oil drilling. This  is an abdication of the Governor’s promise to shut down oil drilling in the state.”

Recent legislation will set back climate progress in California

A controversial piece of legislation, SB 237 (Grayson) went into effect on January 1, despite widespread opposition by climate, environmental justice, community, and consumer groups across the state. 

Under that law, Kern County, where the majority of California's oil wells are located, can permit tens of thousands of new oil and gas wells over the next decade under a streamlined local environmental review, bypassing stricter and often site-specific state-level scrutiny. You can read about the details of that bill in my September 2025 article here: www.dailykos.com/...

Meanwhile, CalGEM of the California Department of Conservation still rubber-stamps approvals, due to the enormous influence of the Western States Petroleum Association, Chevron and other oil corporations on California officials. “A previous version of the county’s ordinance was successfully challenged and paused for three years for violating the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) before SB 237 became law,” the groups noted.

Anabel Marquez, president of the Committee for a Better Shafter, outlined the considerable harm increased drilling poses to the health of frontline communities in Kern County already suffering from the worst air quality in the country, according to the American Lung Association's 'State of the Air' report: https://www.lung.org/research/sota/key-findings/most-polluted-places

“For communities across Kern County, these new oil and gas permits are not just numbers on paper, they represent continued harm to families who already carry the burden of pollution,” said Marquez. “In passing SB 237, Kern County is now approving permits in the same places where residents are dealing with poor air quality, serious health impacts, and a lack of real protections. As community members, we are calling for accountability and for county and state agencies to truly prioritize the health and well-being of frontline communities, not the interests of the oil and gas industry.”

Fast-tracking new oil drilling permits doesn't impact just local communities, it affects everybody in California.

“Rubber-stamping new permits also affects all Californians,” argued Tucker. “It means increased fiscal liability for consumers who could end up paying billions of dollars to plug wells because the state doesn’t make oil companies put up enough in bonding. These new permits only abet the oil industry and the Trump Administration’s plans to overturn our laws protecting public health and to expand drilling across wide swaths of this state when we can be making a faster transition away from fossil fuels. They also paper over the industry’s financial problems of weak oil prices and a glut of supply.”

But while California’s rollbacks on environmental regulations are a huge threat to dealing with climate change, the Trump administration has been waging an all-out attack on the state’s existing environmental laws. 

In fact, the oil industry and the U.S. Justice Department under President Trump are suing to overturn SB 1137 (Gonzalez), the 2022 law that established 3,200-foot health protection buffers between oil drilling and communities, as I reported here: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/1/2366627/-Trump-regime-launches-lawsuit-against-California-law-protecting-communities-from-oil-drilling

The law went into effect following an industry ballot referendum that the proponents took off the ballot due to lack of public support. So opponents of that landmark environmental law have now turned to the courts, according to advocates.

“The US Bureau of Land Management proposed opening 850,000 acres of public land —from Santa Barbara to the Bay Area and inland—to oil drilling and fracking, despite a state ban on fracking. BLM's proposal seeks to finalize two leasing plans previously halted by lawsuits, using updated environmental review documents that do not acknowledge SB 1137,” the advocates stated.

The proposal for expanded drilling threatens local and regional air and water quality in parks, communities, and sensitive coastlines. 

"This expansion push comes as California faces severe air quality challenges. Oil and gas drilling is a primary source of ozone precursors in the Central Valley, where many counties receive failing air quality grades. The American Lung Association’s 2025 ‘State of the Air’ report found 98% of Californians experience unhealthy air at some point during the year,” Consumer Watchdog and the Fractracker Alliance concluded.

Big Oil spent $33.8 million to lobby California officials in 2025

It is no surprise why Big Oil is able to pressure California officials to support increased oil drilling and rollbacks of the state's climate and health policies. Data just posted on the California Secretary of State’s website revealed that the oil and gas industry spent $7,478,567.87 in the fourth quarter of 2025 lobbying California officials, bringing the total to $33,848,396.96 in 2025. That will probably make last year the second biggest year for oil industry lobbying spending in California history.

The Western States Petroleum Association topped the oil industry lobbying expenditures with $3,525,971.27 spent in the fourth quarter, while Chevron finished second with $2,113,122.50 spent. The two Big Oil organizations have consistently spent the most on lobbying in Sacramento of any lobbyist employers.

More information with a detailed analysis will be coming later. I'm one of the few journalists in California that has done consistent reporting on Big Oil influence in the state - and many years ago broke the huge story about how Big Oil has captured the faux "green" and "progressive" government of this state.

Big Oil's influence on this state and country is one of the key reasons for the U.S. wars all over the planet, including Iraq, Palestine and Venezuela. Yes, it is about the oil.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Last Chance Alliance's analysis of Big Oil lobbying spending in 2025 - and will post that here also.

Annual and Quarterly Permit Totals (2025) 

CalGEM approved 17 new oil well drilling permits last year, down 77% from all of 2024 (73 permits), according to CalGEM data analyzed byFracTracker Alliance. The total number of rework permits issued last year fell 15% from the year before to 1,089. (See Table 1 below.

Table 1. Quarterly versus annual changes in permitting

In the fourth quarter of 2025, CalGEM approved eight new drilling permits versus four in the last quarter of 2024. (For more detail on quarterly permits, see Table 2 below.) Well plugging permits rose 71% in the fourth quarter but were actually down about 5% for the year versus 2024. 

Fourth quarter increases in plugging approvals of 71% were likely last-minute moves by operators to meet required idle well plugging quotas. While operators were focused on plugging in the fourth quarter, permits to rework existing wells fell by 35% over the fourth quarter of 2024.

Table 2. 2025 4th Quarter Permits