California Gov. Gavin Newsom has made his war on the state’s oil and gas industry a hallmark of his administration. In 2023, he declared that he “took on Big Oil and won,” after passing laws requiring refiners to publicize data as part of an effort to find evidence of price gouging, which turned up none.  

After years of passing stringent regulations on the state’s oil and gas industry, refineries closed and Chevron moved its headquarters to Texas. 

While “Big Oil” has been Newsom’s primary target, individual mineral owners have been swept up in the governor’s effort to stamp out oil and gas production. A law Newsom signed in 2022  bans new oil and gas operations around “community spaces.” This means California mineral owners that are near one of these areas can no longer use their property.

According to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by two mineral owners in the state, this constitutes an unconstitutional taking of their property under the Fifth Amendment. 

Creates “Health protection zones”

The law, SB 1137, bans new oil wells within 3,200 feet of “health protection zones,” which are areas around homes, schools, hospitals and just about anywhere people live, work or gather. 

Sometimes real estate has what is called split estate, where the surface of the property has one owner and the minerals beneath the surface have a different owner. 

Mineral rights owners can engage in the development of resources beneath the surface, such as mining or oil and gas production, and surface owners can build, rent, live on, or farm the land. 

Click here to read the article at Just the News.