By Eric Eisenhammer,
Director of Public Affairs and Public Relations
Over 80 oil and gas mineral and royalty owners, attorneys, consultants, and community leaders attended a Town Hall meeting in Santa Barbara County on July 23rd as NARO-California prepares for a growing fight over mineral rights stretching from Santa Barbara County to Los Angeles.
The stakes are enormous. Santa Barbara County and the City of Los Angeles are moving forward with proposals that would prohibit new oil and gas wells and ultimately phase out all existing production. According to an analysis by Numeric Solutions, a highly respected geoscience and engineering firm headquartered in Ventura, the potential loss to Santa Barbara County royalty and mineral owners alone exceeds $1 billion in net present royalty value. In addition, the potential loss of the business enterprise value to be incurred by the producers could be double or triple that amount. If combined, that would amount to total potential losses of between $3 and $4 billion.
We have not yet undertaken a similar potential loss analysis for the City of Los Angeles. We presume that the losses there would also be quite substantial. We believe that the adoption of either of the proposed oil and gas phase-out ordinances will result in uncompensated regulatory takings of the property of mineral and royalty owners in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This would potentially expose the City of Los Angeles and the County of Santa Barbara to billions of dollars in takings claims.
NARO-California has formally put both governments on notice:
Read NARO-California’s Santa Barbara County Legal Notice
Read NARO-California’s City of Los Angeles Legal Notice
Royalty Owners Are Organizing
The July 23rd Town Hall meeting in Buelton brought together people involved in the Santa Barbara County fight from nearly every angle.
Attendees heard from Santa Barbara County Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson on the county’s proposed shutdown measures; Petroleum Geologist Eric White, V.P. of Numeric Solutions on the potential financial damage; NARO-California Board Member and longtime oil and gas engineer Ramon Elias on SB 1137, California’s extreme 3200-foot oil setback law; and Jeff Jennings of Pacific Legal Foundation on PLF’s federal existing court challenge and their potential federal court challenge to the proposed phase-out ordinance. NARO-California’s legal team also laid out preparations for challenging Santa Barbara County in court.
And NARO-California has been here before.
We previously helped defeat oil and gas restrictions at the ballot box in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, successfully challenged an earlier Los Angeles drilling ban and supported a settlement protecting royalty owners in Ventura County.
In Monterey County, NARO-California assembled 84 royalty owners as co-plaintiffs in fighting Measure Z (NARO-CA, et al v. County of Monterey, et al). In addition, five producers also filed suits. Working together we won in the superior court, won again by unanimous decision at the appellate court and ultimately secured a unanimous California Supreme Court victory establishing new legal precedent on preemption.
NARO-California has assembled an experienced legal team for the fights ahead. Our NARO-CA V.P. and General Counsel Ed Renwick brings more than 50 years of oil, gas and natural resources law experience and he led all three of our previous successful litigation efforts in Monterey County, Ventura County and in the City of Los Angeles. For the anticipated new Santa Barbara County litigation, Mr. Renwick has assembled a legal team that includes veteran Los Angeles trial attorney Charles Murray III and Santa Barbara County attorneys Mario Juarez and Rich Adam, bringing decades of experience in trial law, land use, natural resources and local government.
Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Jeff Jennings is separately representing NARO-California members John and Melinda Morgan in a federal Fifth Amendment challenge to SB 1137.
A Statewide Fight Needs Statewide Support
The fight extends beyond the courtroom.
NARO-California has helped build Californians for Property Rights, a growing coalition bringing together agricultural, business, taxpayer and property-rights organizations from across California. The effort has also taken the fight to Sacramento and generated media coverage across the state.
Learn more at FightforPropertyRights.com.
Together, these efforts are part of a larger strategy to protect mineral and royalty owners through organizing, communications, public affairs and, when necessary, litigation.
NARO-California has established an initial fundraising goal of $440,000 to carry out that work.
The first milestone is $200,000, and commitments totaling half of that initial goal are already in place.
But those commitments depend on reaching the full $200,000.
That means we need your help to close the remaining gap.
The urgency extends well beyond Santa Barbara County and the City of Los Angeles. SB 1137 threatens mineral rights statewide. And AB 3233 has opened the door for local governments across California to impose additional restrictions on oil and gas operations.
Anti-oil activists nationwide are watching. If they succeed in taking mineral rights in Santa Barbara County and Los Angeles, the same strategy won’t stop at California’s borders. Royalty owners in any or all other states could be next.
NARO-California has a record of winning these battles. We have a legal team ready to fight, a statewide coalition growing behind us and more than half of our first fundraising goal already committed.
Now we need your help to fight back.
Help NARO-California reach the first $200,000 and put the resources behind the fights already underway.
Join NARO-California, become a sponsor or support the fight at NARO-CA.org.
We have fought these battles before. We have won them before. And we are ready to fight again.
Eric Eisenhammer
Eric serves as Public Affairs and Public Relations Director for NARO-California. He's a Southern California native with a bachelor's degree in Finance and a background in small business and taxpayer advocacy.