Elected Officials to Protect California
Join us in urging Governor Newsom to protect our public health and climate by phasing out oil and gas drilling in California.
315 Signatories
From 49 Counties
Join Us
Join us in urging Governor Newsom to protect our public health and climate by phasing out oil and gas drilling in California.
315 Signatories
From 49 Counties
Dear Governor Newsom,
We, the undersigned elected officials, are deeply concerned about the immediate and long-term harms to the people we represent from climate change and pollution caused by the extraction, processing, and burning of fossil fuels.
California has made great progress by committing our electricity sector to be carbon-neutral by 2045 and supporting the Paris Agreement. We appreciate that you have made addressing climate change a priority of your administration. You have rightly said, “we must map out longer-term strategies…for California’s energy future, to ensure that the cost of climate change doesn’t fall on those least able to afford it.”
Latest Press Releases
November 19, 2020
Urgent action combating climate change, and systemic change that addresses racial inequalities, has to happen. That’s why Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) urges President-elect Biden to prioritize a National Climate Plan that will be just for all, and employs hundreds of thousands transitioning America to a clean energy economy.
“The fossil fuel industry keeps giving us this false choice between a healthy economy or a healthy environment. Here in Culver City, we’re proving that just isn’t true,” said Meghan Sahli-Wells, former Culver City Mayor, Elected Officials to Protect America-California Leadership Council Co-Chair.
November 19, 2020
The production of fossil fuels has affected health outcomes of citizens across the country for decades, causing cancer in children and adults, asthma, respiratory and cardiovascular problems, headaches, nausea, dizziness, and premature and/or low birth weights. Scientific knowledge, from more than two dozen peer-reviewed studies that were published over the last 20 years, all conclude that living near oil and gas wells risks potentially serious health consequences. Petroleum-related air toxins like benzene, toluene, formaldehyde and xylene are the culprits.
“There currently is no binding commitment from the Newsom Administration to create any kind of health and safety buffer zone. The science is clear — people are dying. We have to protect the health and well-being of communities living next to oil and gas wells. The governor needs to issue an executive order for setbacks of 2,500 feet to address this health emergency,” said Sacramento Councilmember-elect Katie Valenzuela, Steering Committee Member of Elected Officials to America/California.
November 11, 2020
On Veterans Day four veterans who also hold elected office, and Brigadier General Stephen Cheney held a press conference to highlight the national security dangers of climate change. The elected officials are part of a group called the Elected Officials to Protect America. (EOPA). Brigadier Cheney is the President of the non-profit American Security Project.(ASA.) Their assessments of the situation locally, and internationally were eye opening.
Please view the LINK HERE
September 24, 2020
Culver City took a stand towards independence from the oil industry late in the evening of October 26, when the council voted unanimously in support of the Oil Drilling Subcommittee, consisting of Vice-Mayor Alex Fisch and Councilmember Meghan Sahli-Wells recommendations, to phase out oil drilling, properly cap and remediate the site and develop a plan to enact a just transition for workers within five years.
“We’re phasing out oil drilling in the Culver City portion of the Inglewood oil field, which happens to be the largest urban oil field in the United States,” said Culver City Councilmember Meghan Sahli-Wells, Elected Officials to Protect California Co-Chair. “Our unanimous vote let other communities across the state know it’s possible to phase out oil fields. We don’t have to be chained to the past, we can and should look to the future now by phasing out oil drilling. I hope Governor Gavin Newsom took note. The state should find avenues to help municipalities that depend on revenue from the oil companies become free from that dependency.”
October 14, 2020
A NRDC analysis of oil and gas development in California shows that approximately 5.4 million people of the state’s population live within a mile of one, or more, of more than 84,000 existing oil and gas wells.
Governor Newsom fails to address these fundamental facts when he publicly claims the state is leading the battle against climate change. He obliquely referenced the need for setbacks around oil and gas drilling operations and the phasing out of fossil fuels in his recent executive order, but ultimately left those tasks to more studies and the legislature.
“The people that over 315 of us represent, are the same people Governor Newsom represents. They need him to act now — before the flames of climate change can’t be contained. This fire season, and the pandemic are clear results of humans disrupting the environment — it’s time our governor took real action.
“When is he going to see he’s fueling the fires that have caused this climate emergency?” asked Meghan Sahli-Wells former Culver City Mayor, and current Council Member, Elected Officials to Protect California Co-Chair.
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