by Katy Grimes, E&E Legal Senior Media Fellow and California Globe Editor
As Appearing in the California Globe
‘Royalty owners in New York are living the same nightmare California royalty owners face with SB 1137’
NARO-California, of the National Association of Royalty Owners, together with Pacific Legal Foundation announced in January their federal lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 1137, the 3,200-foot oil setback mandate that they argue violates the constitutional rights of oil and gas mineral and royalty owners.
According to NARO-CA and Pacific Legal Foundation, SB 1137 amounts to an uncompensated taking of private property in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution.
The Globe reported in 2022 on Senate Bill 1137, gut-and-amend legislation by Democrat Senators Lena Gonzalez and Monique Limón, to require 3,200-foot mandatory setbacks around California oil and gas wells:
Really disconcerting is “the bill would authorize the State Air Resources Board, and the State Water Resources Control Board to prescribe, adopt, and enforce any emergency regulations as necessary to implement, administer, and enforce these duties.”
Why now when oil production has responsibly occurred in Los Angeles County and around the state for more than 100 years?
