California to Halt Fracking Permits by January 2024, Phase Out Oil Extraction by 2045

California will stop issuing new permits for hydraulic fracking by January 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Friday.

The Democrat governor also instructed the California Air Resources Board to research how to phase out oil extraction by 2045 in the Golden State.

The move is regarded mostly as symbolic as California Department of Conservation records show fracking accounts for only 2 percent of oil extraction in the state.

"I've made it clear I don't see a role for fracking in that future and believe that California needs to move beyond oil," he pledged.

Newsom seems to have changed his tactics after a push to ban fracking in the state legislature failed.

An oil producers trade association said the executive move is "Disappointing," will undermine the energy industry in California, and shift oil production to foreign countries with questionable human rights records.

"It's disappointing that the Governor's legally questionable announcement will undermine California's climate leadership. Curbing in state production through a well stimulation ban would not change the fact that Californians demand 1.4 million barrels of oil each day. Instead of meeting our vast needs with California oil produced under the planet's strictest regulations, we would economically reward foreign regimes who do not share our environmental standards and human rights values," the California Independent Petroleum Association, a trade association representing approximately 500 independent crude oil and natural gas producers and related companies operating in California, said in a statement.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/california-to-halt-fracking-permits-by-january-2024-phase-out-oil-extraction-by-2045_3789631.html