BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — About 20 years ago, Chad Hathaway started Hathaway LLC, an independent oil company based in Bakersfield.
“What they’ve done literally in this case is they’ve taken from us our ability to develop our minerals, develop our properties,” said Hathaway. “So constitutionally, it’s not right, it’s not fair.”
Operating about 300 wells throughout Kern County, Hathaway shares that SB 1137 has been a slippery slope for the company.
“Out of our production, about 50% of it was impacted by the SB 1137, which means we can no longer drill, we can no longer work on the wells to make significant changes to them, and basically puts the wells on a pathway to death,” said Hathaway.
SB 1137 establishes a “health protection zone,” which bans the development of new oil wells within 3,200 ft of “sensitive receptors” such as homes, schools, playgrounds, and hospitals.
But on July 25, a judge in Los Angeles ruled in favor of multiple oil producers and employees who filed a lawsuit against this California law, petitioners arguing that the law is arbitrary.
“I think it's got a lot of teeth,” said Hathaway. “I think it’s gonna do really well and people are involved in are really sharp and know what they’re doing and are very well organized.”
Some environmental agencies disagree, including the Center for Biological Diversity.
“These lawsuits are baseless attempts to rip away critical health protections against oil industry pollution,” said Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “The state has every right to protect Californians’ health and safety from dangerous drilling in our backyards, and we expect the courts will ultimately agree.”
However, this legal battle is far from over.
The case is scheduled to return to the LA Superior Court on September 22.
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