Attorney General Bonta Rebukes Deficient Environmental Analysis for Trump Administration’s Planned Oil and Gas Lease Sale for California Land

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta submitted a comment letter pointing out the many flaws in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) that insufficiently evaluates the environmental consequences of an oil and gas lease sale covering nearly 36,000 acres in Central California. The proposed lease sale of 44 parcels — 43 in the Bakersfield Planning Area and one in the Central Coast Planning area — is the latest development in a long-running attempt to open new parts of California to oil and gas drilling. This proposed lease sale is subject to environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), but BLM violated the law’s requirement to take a hard look at the environmental consequences of leasing this land to oil and gas operators. In particular, BLM failed to consider the public health impacts of leasing parcels that are close to residences, schools, and hospitals and the impact on water supply and quality, air quality, and sensitive habitats and species. Attorney General Bonta asserts that this EA is another insufficient environmental review that puts politics and profits over legal requirements, to the further detriment of vulnerable communities.

“Once again, the Trump Administration is pushing to expand oil and gas development into additional areas of California, continuing a pattern that favors fossil fuel interests at the expense of public health and the environment. This lease sale would place a greater burden on communities that already experience severe air pollution, while ignoring the thorough environmental review required by law,” said Attorney General Bonta. “California’s land belongs to the people, not to special interest groups seeking to profit from them. My office remains committed to protecting our communities and resources and will continue to call out any action that threatens our environment and jeopardizes public health.” 

Background

On July 2, 2026, BLM announced plans to hold an oil and gas lease sale in December 2026, of nearly 36,000 acres in Kern, Kings, Fresno, and San Luis Obispo Counties. On August 21, 2026, BLM published a Draft EA for the proposed lease sale. The Draft EA relies on prior planning documents and environmental analyses that would collectively open up around 2 million acres of land across 20 counties in California to oil and gas operations. The Attorney General commented in opposition to these plans in March 2026, also arguing that the environmental analyses for the plans were deficient. BLM finalized these plans in June.  

If finalized, the lease sale would impact some of the most pollution-burdened communities in California. Public health impacts include increased mortality and morbidity — particularly adverse perinatal and respiratory outcomes — as well as economic harms from medical costs and lost productivity. The Draft EA also assumes that some hydraulic fracturing will occur despite the technique being phased out in California and fails to consider state law that limits drilling near homes and schools, as well as state efforts to combat climate change. Approximately 16 of the parcels BLM proposes to lease fall within California’s 3,200-foot public health and safety setback, established under Senate Bill 1137 to protect the health of communities from the harmful effects of drilling near homes, schools, and other sensitive locations. Despite this, the Draft EA includes no discussion of the specific impacts that leasing these parcels may have on nearby communities. 

In the comment letter, Attorney General Bonta argues that the Draft EA for the 44-parcel lease sale is deficient for many reasons, including because BLM: 

• Based the Draft EA on other inadequate assessments that rely on flawed data and that do not analyze the specific impacts associated with the proposed lease sale.
• Failed to consider recent science and data or adequately analyze the harms from oil and gas development — especially those related to water quality and quantity, air pollution, and the outsized public health harms to communities near oil and gas operations, who are disproportionately low-income communities and communities of color.
• Failed to consider reasonable alternatives to its proposed actions, including those that would protect more public lands and limit or mitigate the harms to nearby communities.