Comment Log Display

As the top
consumer of Amazon oil, the state of California is driving new oil
drilling in the region. With national protests happening in Ecuador
currently calling on protection of the Amazon and Indigenous
rights, I call on governments driving up demand for crude oil to
take positive action. The current scoping plan from CARB
(California Air Resources Board) has plans to double fossil fuel
infrastructure in the state while continuing to import Amazon
oil. 
It is Urgent that we must:

Rein in rogue refineries. Commit
California to a policy/regulatory agenda that ensures that
California refineries are not sourcing crude from regions where
there are Indigenous rights violations or from regions where new
oil drilling in the Amazon is being planned.
Don’t punt California’s climate impacts to
communities in the Amazon. Present a plan for
California to reduce and/or eliminate its consumption of crude from
the Amazon.
Commit California to new fuel efficiency
standards and expanded electrification of fleets that
consume the most Amazon oil.

- I and many others are extremely
concerned that California consumes nearly 50% of all oil exports
from the Amazon globally (nearly 1 in 9 gallons pumped in-state on
average).
- We call upon the
California Air Resources Board (CARB) to not become complicit in
driving new oil drilling in the Amazon, and that they must step
forward to regulate refineries’ crude sources and
volumes.
- We Urgently
recommend that CARB also take steps to ensure California refineries
are not sourcing crude oil from regions where human rights
violations are occurring with impunity; and require refineries to
ensure they will not source crude from areas of new drilling in the
Amazon, now or in the future.
- Crude oil from the Ecuadorian region
of the Amazon is refined in California, selling to thousands of
businesses and millions of Californians as fuel. Unfortunately,
there are plans to expand oil production in Ecuador - "thanks" to
the demand from Calfornia - meaning over 8 million acres of
roadless rainforest will be leasted for oil development.
 
However, at the present time, we have
little time at a chance to ensure fossil fuel expansion is not
taking place in either California nor the Amazon.
I am a California resident and
submitting my comment to urge CARB that any climate change plans
being considered, and going forward, should restrict fossil fuel
expansion – domestically and globally. CARB can require
refineries to put Indigenous rights screens in place and mechanisms
to ensure that oil will not be sourced from new drilling in the
Amazon.
As extraction communities in California
and Indigenous communities both face ongoing oil spills and
pollution, it’s important that the state doesn’t rely
on increasing domestic production in order to reduce its use of
Amazon crude. We need a just and sustainable future that
doesn’t involve fossil fuel expansion at home or in the
Amazon. 
During the past week at the
Summit of the Americas, we put the Linked Fates of
California and the Amazon on the forefront.  Now we must build
on this progress by pushing for policy change. We must call for
stronger policies to end U.S. and California's complicity in new
oil drilling in the Amazon once and for all.