Groups sue over California county's plan to drill oil wells

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) — Environmental and community groups have sued a California county after the prime oil-drilling region approved a plan to fast-track thousands of new wells in a state that's positioned itself as a leader in combating climate change.

The Kern County Board of Supervisors on Monday approved a revised ordinance that could lead to approval of more than 40,000 new oil and gas wells over roughly 15 years.

The Sierra Club and other groups asked a court Wednesday to order county leaders to set aside the ordinance and bar them from approving any drilling permits.

The county, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, didn’t immediately reply to an email seeking comment on the lawsuit.

A state appeals court ruled last year that a 2015 Kern County ordinance violated the California Environmental Quality Act by not fully evaluating or disclosing environmental damage that could occur from drilling. New drilling permits were not issued while the county returned to the drawing board.

The revised ordinance would allow the county to use a blanket environmental impact report when considering as many as 2,700 new wells a year.

Kern County is the state’s leading fossil fuel producer and also a major agricultural area. It accounts for about 80% of all oil and gas production in California, with about 1 in 7 workers in the county of 900,000 having a job tied to the oil industry.

Supervisors argued that the fossil fuel industry provides good jobs and that production under local requirements would be more environmentally sound than bringing foreign oil into the nation's most populated state by truck, ship or pipeline.

The lawsuit notes that Kern County already has some of the most polluted air in the United States. It contends that the revised...