… California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed new laws to hold oil companies accountable and protect neighborhoods from oil development, protections community groups have fought more than a decade to win. … A.B. 1866 increases fees for operators who fail to plug and clean up the thousands of wells that sit idle in California. “There are more than 40,000 idle oil wells that are leaking into our groundwater and polluting our air, and the oil companies are not taking responsibility,” said author Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara). “It is not the taxpayers’ responsibility to take care of this pollution.” That these bills are now state law is “a huge victory for frontline communities that have been bearing the brunt of oil and gas pollution for decades,” said Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

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