SACRAMENTO, CA – Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) issued the following statement on today’s Kern County Board of Supervisors’ meeting regarding California’s new oil and gas initiatives:  

“Today, I joined local leaders, community activists and my colleagues in Kern County to discuss an initiative proposed by the state to implement more rigorous guidelines on oil production in California. As the State Senator for the southern Central Valley, a region that is often disproportionately impacted, I’ve had the opportunity to carefully review the perspectives of both my constituents and the Governor’s Administration. 

Facing a 6.4 percent unemployment rate, Kern County’s poverty level currently sits at 22.6 percent. As the center of energy production for California, producing 80 percent of the oil and 46 percent of gas exploration and production in the state, more than 14,000 jobs in the county are directly tied to the industry. 

Although we share the same mission to uplift those that are often underrepresented, the initiative proposed by the State of California is a blanketed effort that further impacts that families that are dependent on these jobs for upward mobility. For this reason, I highly urge policymakers to take into consider existing communities and its fundamental ecosystem.”

For more information, please visit https://sd14.senate.ca.gov/.

About Senator Melissa Hurtado

Senator Melissa Hurtado is an advocate for expanding access to health care and clean water, growing educational opportunities and creating more quality jobs. She represents the 14^th Senate District in California, which includes cities in Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties. Senator Hurtado was born in Fresno, California and was raised in the City of Sanger, where she still resides with her family.

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